Текст на английском про Нижний Новгород

Nizhny Novgorod is a big city in Russia. It is very old. It is about 400 kilometres from Moscow.

The city stands on two rivers. They are the Volga and the Oka. The rivers meet in the city.

There is a red Kremlin on a high hill. It has thirteen towers. From the hill you can see the rivers.

There is a very long staircase near the Kremlin. It has more than 500 steps. People like walking there.

My cousin lives in Nizhny Novgorod. I like visiting him in summer.

Last May my parents and I spent a weekend in Nizhny Novgorod. We went there by fast train from Moscow, and the journey took only about four hours.

On the first day we walked around the Kremlin. Its red brick walls are very thick, and the towers look like they are from a fairy tale. Then we went down the Chkalov Staircase to the Volga. It was easy to go down, but it was much harder to come back up!

In the evening we walked along Bolshaya Pokrovskaya Street. It is the busiest street in the old town. Musicians were playing, and people were sitting in cafés.

On Sunday we took the cable car across the Volga. It was the most exciting part of the trip, because we were flying high above the water.

I loved the city. Next summer I am going to come back with my friends.

Nizhny Novgorod was founded in 1221 by Prince Yuri Vsevolodovich at the place where the Oka flows into the Volga. The location was chosen carefully: the high right bank of the rivers made the town easy to defend, and the rivers connected it with many other parts of the country.

The city's most famous symbol is its Kremlin, which was built of red brick in the early sixteenth century. The walls are about two kilometres long and climb up and down the steep hills. Although the fortress has been rebuilt many times, it has never been captured by an enemy.

For centuries Nizhny Novgorod was an important centre of trade. In the nineteenth century the huge Nizhny Novgorod Fair was held here every summer, and merchants came from Europe and Asia to buy and sell goods. Because of this, the city was often called 'the pocket of Russia'.

Nizhny Novgorod is also connected with famous people. The writer Maxim Gorky was born here, and for many years the city was even named after him. The Chkalov Staircase, which leads from the upper town down to the Volga, is named after the pilot Valery Chkalov.

I have been to Nizhny Novgorod twice, but I have only seen it in summer. If I go there in winter, I will definitely walk along the snowy embankment.

For many visitors, Nizhny Novgorod is little more than a stop on a Volga cruise or a day trip from Moscow. Yet anyone who stays longer soon discovers a city with a distinct personality, shaped by eight centuries of history and by its remarkable geography.

Standing on the high bank where the Oka joins the Volga, the city is literally divided into two levels. The upper town, crowned by the Kremlin, looks down on the lower part, which stretches along the rivers. Seldom does a city offer such dramatic views from its very centre: at sunset, the wide water and the endless forests on the opposite bank seem to merge into one landscape.

The city's prosperity was built on trade. Throughout the nineteenth century, the famous fair attracted merchants from Persia, China and Western Europe, turning a provincial town into a meeting point of cultures. Later, Nizhny Novgorod became a major industrial centre, and for decades it was closed to foreigners, which partly explains why it remains less familiar to tourists than it deserves to be.

Today the city is trying to balance its heritage with modern life. Old merchant houses have been restored, former warehouses have been turned into galleries, and the embankments have become popular places for walks. Critics argue that some renovations have been too hasty, while supporters say that without them many historic buildings would have collapsed.

Personally, I believe that Nizhny Novgorod is at its best when explored slowly. Had I simply followed a guidebook, I would have missed the quiet wooden houses hidden in the side streets, which, to my mind, reveal the soul of the city far better than any monument.