Igarka is an town in Turukhansky District

Turukhansky District

Turukhansky District is an administrative and municipal district , one of the forty-three in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is located in the northwest portion of the krai and borders with Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District in the north, Evenkiysky District in the east, Yeniseysky District in the...

 of Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, located 163 kilometres (101.3 mi) north of the Arctic Circle

Arctic Circle

The Arctic Circle is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. For Epoch 2011, it is the parallel of latitude that runs north of the Equator....

. It is also a port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 on the Yenisei River

Yenisei River

Yenisei , also written as Yenisey, is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean. It is the central of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean...

, located 673 kilometres (418.2 mi) away from the river's mouth. Population: 16,000 (1970).

It is served by Igarka Airport

Igarka Airport

Igarka Airport is an airport in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia located 3 km south of Igarka. It accommodates medium-sized airliners. The facility is fully paved and well-maintained, however is isolated on an island and depends on ice crossing or ferry service....

 whose location across the river makes access difficult when the water is part thawed: in winter one can drive across, in summer there's a boat connection but in between things get difficult.

Igarka was founded in 1929 as a sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

 and timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

-exporting port. It was granted town status in 1931. From 1949 to 1953, the Salekhard-Igarka Railway project made an unsuccessful attempt to connect Igarka to the Russian railway network at Salekhard

Salekhard

-International relations:-Twin towns/sister cities:Salekhard is twinned with:*Azov, Rostov Oblast, Russia-External links:*...

, claiming the lives of thousands of Gulag

Gulag

The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

prisoners.

The town's main attraction is a curious permafrost museum which has won some pan-European prizes.