Tyumen

Tyumen is the oldest Russian city in Siberia, founded in 1586. It is not "a city by the river" but a city built exactly around the confluence of two rivers — the Iset and the Tobol — and its old centre is arranged around that confluence.

What to see

• The Burkov House — a 19th-century merchant house, one of the city's symbols: a stone first floor, a wooden second floor with carved window frames. Today it is a museum.
• The old centre — merchant houses with carved eaves, the details of which were studied by S. Zavarikhin and B. Zhuchenko; several houses in the city are considered the standard of Siberian carving.
• The Tobol embankment — the main promenade: from the bridge over the Iset to the square where the monument to the founders of the city stands.
• The Tobolsk Kremlin — 116 km away, but it is the "suburb" of Tyumen usually included in the same day.

Food and the city

Tyumen is a city with a strong merchant tradition: the local cuisine is not "Siberian specialities" but high-quality Russian cooking with local accents — smelt, pike, game. In the centre there are several restaurants that hold the line, and several cafés aimed at the local audience.