Nizhneudinsk

Nizhneudinsk is a city in the Russian Federation, a district center in the Irkutsk region, located at the foot of the spurs of the Eastern Sayan, on the banks of the river. Uda (Chuna) (the basin of the Yenisei River), 506 km northwest of Irkutsk. The population is 42.3 thousand inhabitants (2001). Founded in 1648. The city since 1783. The main industrial enterprises: mica factory; enterprises of forest industry and railway transport; plants "Translespromzdanie" (container-type buildings), road construction materials. Enterprises of the food industry: brewery, confectionery factory, dairy, meat processing plant. In the area discovered deposits of coal, ores of gold, silver, zinc, lead, manganese, molybdenum, quartzite, copper, iron, etc.
Nizhneudinsk was founded in 1648 by Russian Cossacks as Pokrovsky Township. In 1649, there were pens on this place, and from 1664 the prison. The city of Nizhneudinsk since 1783. The name contrasts it formed in the same 1783 at the mouth of another r. Uda (right tributary of Selenga) to the city of Verkhneudinsk (now Ulan-Ude). For a long time, Nizhneudinsk was an exchange and trading point: gold and livestock products were traded here. Food, clothing, and hunting supplies were exported from here.
Among the attractions of the city and its surroundings: St. Nicholas Church, Ukov waterfall (located 18 km from Nizhneudinsk, downstream of Uda), Nizhneudinsky caves (75 km up Uda, at an altitude of 460 m above sea level). In the Nizhneudinsky district, 209 km from Nizhneudinsk is the area of Tofalaria, where the Tofalars (Tofas) live, the smallest ethnicity of Russia - their number is only 722 people. Tofalaria is connected to Nizhneudinsky Airlines.