Odessa, the center of Odessa Region. It is located in Ukraine. It is the port in the bay of the Black See near Odessa. It stretches for 160 square km. According to the last population census, the number of people living in Odessa is 1.029.000. The city was founded in 1794. It is the third largest city as long as Kiev and Kharkov, the main industrial, cultural, scientific, transport center and the resort of the North Prichernomoriye. Russians, Ukrainians and Jewish people are the predominate population. Economy Odessa is the largest seaport in Ukraine transporting grain, sugar, coal, oil products, cement, metal, wood, jute, machine-building industrial products. It is the military and naval base, fishing and whaling flotilla. Odessa is the biggest railway center. The main branches of industry are shipbuilding, oil and metal processing, machine building, light industry, food and wood processing, agricultural and chemical industry. It is the biggest resort that possesses a large number of beaches, vacation houses and health centers. Culture Odessa residents are proud of their unique architectural and cultural inheritance. There is Odessa University (founded in 1865), the Opera House (1809), the Museum of History (1825), the City Library (1830), the Observatory (1871), the picture-gallery (1898), some other educational institutions, theaters, and museums. There are some academies in Odessa like Medical University, Marine University, and Conservatoire. Such famous people as Alexandre Pushkin, the poet, Ilia Mechnikov, the biochemist, and Leonid Utyesov, the singer, lived here in different periods of time. A few generations of brilliant comics, who were born and grew up in Odessa in the last century gained the special reputation for the city - "the capital of Russian-speaking humour". The buildings of the old part of the city have different architectural styles from the Renaissance to the Art Nouveau Transportation The regular air service connects Odessa airport with Vienna daily (Austrian Airlines и Air Ukraine International); with Tel-Aviv (EIAI); Istanbul (Turkey Airlines); Athens, Aleppo, Larnaca,Moscow, Kiev airport transfer, Kishenyev, Yerevan, Tbilisi and some other cities in Europe and Asia. Passenger trains regularly run between Odessa and Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava, Vienna, Moscow, St Petersburg, between the main Ukrainian cities and the cities of the FSU. The bus service connects Odessa with Germany (Berlin, Hamburg, Munich); with Greece (Thessaloniki, Athens); Bulgaria (Varna and Sofia) and other cities in Ukraine. Passenger ships go back and forth from Odessa to Istanbul, Haifa, and Varna. Some historical facts According to the European standarts Odessa is a young city. It was founded in 1794 by the Russian empress Ekaterina II, who decided that the country needed a port on the Black Sea to expand its connections with Europe. Long time ago on the territory of today's Odessa there lived an ancient Greek colony and then the Crimean Tatars. They were replaced by Turks-Osmans, who built the Hadjibey fortress. This fortress was occupied by Russian forces in 1789. Odessa, which was located in the convenient geographical position, quickly changed from the little colony into a big, trade, industrial, and scientific center of great European importance. On the occasion of its 100 anniversary from the date it was founded, Odessa took the 4th place in Russian Empire as for the number of population and the level of the economic development after St Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw. During the 1st Word War and the Civil War in Russian the city experienced devastation and chaos. During the 2d World War it was partially destroyed. Despite the historical shocks, the population of Odessa increased almost three times during the last century. Today the city continues to grow and develop as a large industrial center and the resort of Ukraine. Every year the mild climate, lots of sandy beaches, and the warm sea attract thousands of tourists to the city which long ago earned the title of "Southern Palmyra" .