Payer Island is an island in Franz Josef Land

Franz Josef Land

Franz Josef Land, Franz Joseph Land, or Francis Joseph's Land is an archipelago located in the far north of Russia. It is found in the Arctic Ocean north of Novaya Zemlya and east of Svalbard, and is administered by Arkhangelsk Oblast. Franz Josef Land consists of 191 ice-covered islands with a...

, 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...

. Its area is 160 km².

Payer Island is part of the Zichy Land

Zichy Land

Zichy Land is a geographical subgroup of Franz Josef Land, Russian Federation.It is formed by the central cluster of large islands in the midst of the archipelago...

 subgroup of the Franz Josef Archipelago.

This island was named after Julius Johannes Ludovicus von Payer

Julius von Payer

Julius Johannes Ludovicus Ritter von Payer was an Austro-Hungarian arctic explorer and an Arctic landscape artist....

 an Austro-Hungarian arctic explorer and an Arctic landscape artist, one of the leaders of the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition

Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition

The Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition was an expedition that ran from 1872–74 and discovered Franz-Josef Land. According to Julius von Payer, one of the leaders, the journey was to find the north-eastern passage. It actually explored the area northwest of Novaya Zemlya. According to the...

.

Adjacent islands

Very close to Payer Island, off its easternmost point, lie some small islands:

• Stoliczka Island (Остров Столичка), the island farther offshore, is the site of a large walrus
  Walrus
  The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
  
   rookery. Lat 81° 11′ N, long 58° 16′ E. This island was named after Moravia
  Moravia
  Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
  
  n paleontologist Ferdinand Stoliczka
  Ferdinand Stoliczka
  Ferdinand Stoliczka was a Moravian palaeontologist who worked in India on paleontology, geology and various aspects of zoology. He died of high altitude sickness during an expedition across the Himalayas.-Early life:Stoliczka was born at the lodge Zámeček near Kroměříž in Moravia...
  
  (1838–1874) by the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition.

• Apollo Island, Ostrov Apollonova lies in the sound between Stoliczka and Payer Island. It is only 500 m across.