Simsa Bay
Encyclopedia
Laptev Sea
The Laptev Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is located between the northern coast of Siberia, the Taimyr Peninsula, Severnaya Zemlya and the New Siberian Islands. Its northern boundary passes from the Arctic Cape to a point with co-ordinates of 79°N and 139°E, and ends at the Anisiy...
on the coast of the Taymyr Peninsula
Taymyr Peninsula
The Taymyr Peninsula is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of mainland Eurasia and Asia...
. It measures about 40 km from the mouth of the Gol'tsovaya River in the west to its broadest opening to the sea in the east. Its average width is 14 km.
The cluster of islands deep inside the bay is known as Ostrova Zalivnyye 77°05′N 104°21′E. The largest island is 4 km in length.
Owing to its extreme northerly location, the climate in the area of the Simsa Bay is exceptionally severe, with prolonged, bitter winters. This gulf is covered by ice most of the year, sometimes remaining frozen even in the brief summer period.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands
Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands
The Komsomolskaya Pravda Islands are a group of islands covered with tundra vegetation, shingle and ice. They were known as Ostrova Samuila before the 1917 Russian Revolution and then they were renamed after Komsomolskaya Pravda, being for a while the only island group in the world named after a...
lie off the Simsa Bay's mouth.
Simsa Bay, Zaliv Simsa, should not be confused with Simskaya Bay, Bukhta Simskaya, an inlet on the right side of the Khatanga Gulf
Khatanga Gulf
The Khatanga Gulf or Khatanga Bay is a large tidal estuary in the Laptev Sea. It is relatively narrow, its length being 220 km with a maximum width of 54 km....
.
History
In 1940-41 Soviet hydrographers found the remains of people, money, weapons and other items in the Simsa Bay and in the nearby Faddey IslandsFaddey Islands
The Faddey Islands is a group of islands covered with tundra vegetation, shingle and ice. It is located in the Laptev Sea coastal region, off Faddey Bay in the coast of Siberia, east of the Taymyr Peninsula.The Main islands are:* Ostrov Faddeyya-Severnyy, latitude 76° 59' N and longitude 108° 02’...
. Apparently these were traces of an expedition undertaken by Akaky and Ivan Muromets in the early 17th century.
The academician A.P. Okladnikov, an expert in the Ancient Cultures of Siberia and the Pacific Basin, studied these findings in 1945. He supposed that the people went there from the west, from 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...
(Historical monument…, 1945).
However, in the 1980s hydrographer V.A.Troitsky put forward a different theory. According to his point of view the deceased seafarers tried to sail by sea from the Khatanga Gulf
Khatanga Gulf
The Khatanga Gulf or Khatanga Bay is a large tidal estuary in the Laptev Sea. It is relatively narrow, its length being 220 km with a maximum width of 54 km....
to the mouth of the Yenisei on two ships in order to load furs (Troitsky, 1991). But the first ship was crushed by ice in the area of the Faddey Islands. Even though the crew were able to reach the land, none of them managed to survive. The second ship reached the Simsa Bay, where the crew built a house in order to leave three ill people there. Then the ship made its way to the south, and four people seem to have been able to reach populated places.
Administration
For administrative purposes the Simsa Bay belongs to the Krasnoyarsk KraiKrasnoyarsk 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...
of the Russian Federation.