Aldan (p=ɐlˈdan; ) is a gold-mining town (the gorod) and the administrative center of Aldansky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located in the Aldan Highlands, in the Aldan River drainage basin, on the stream Orto-Sala near its mouth in the Seligdar River, about south of the republic's capital city of Yakutsk. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 21,275.
History
It was founded in 1923
as
Nezametny (Незаме́тный), after discovery of rich gold deposits. It was granted town status and renamed in 1939. During World War II, an airfield was built here for the Alaska-Siberian (
ALSIB) air route used to ferry American
Lend-Lease aircraft to the Eastern Front.
[Igor Lebedev. Aviation Lend-Lease to Russia. Nova Publishers, 1997, pp. 44-49]
Administrative and municipal status
Within the framework of administrative divisions, Aldan serves as the administrative center of Aldansky District.
[ Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic] As an inhabited locality, Aldan is classified as a town under district jurisdiction.
As an administrative division, it is, together with two rural localities, incorporated within Aldansky District as the
Town of Aldan.
As a municipal division, the Town of Aldan is incorporated within Aldansky Municipal District as
Aldan Urban Settlement.
[Law #173-Z #353-III]
Economy
Aldan remains a productive
gold and
mica mining center, largely avoiding the large drop in population suffered by most other towns in the Russian Far East in the years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Transportation
The town stands on the A360 Lena Highway, which connects
Yakutsk and Never, as well as on the Amur–Yakutsk Mainline railway. It is served by the
Aldan Airport.
Climate
Aldan has the typical eastern Siberian subarctic climate (Köppen
Dfc) though it is affected by the
Pacific Ocean more than localities in the lower
Lena River drainage basin, which gives it much heavier rainfall during the summer than most of the republic, as well as a little more snowfall and rather less extreme winter temperatures – though still extremely cold for the latitude and as much as colder than settlements actually on the Okhotsk coast. In spite of the less extreme winters vis-à-vis more northerly parts of Sakha, Aldan has never seen any day above freezing from 22 November to 7 March inclusive. Although winters are somewhat less extreme than
Yakutsk, summers are actually somewhat cooler, and cloudier, than those northerly areas.
The coldest temperature recorded in Aldan since the weather station was opened in 1937 has been on 20 January 2023 and the hottest on 3 July 2021. February 1969, with a mean temperature of , has been the coldest month on record, shading the preceding January which averaged . The hottest month has been July 1941 which averaged , the wettest August 2006 with of rain, and the driest March 1937 with only of water equivalent.
Notes
Sources
-
Official website of the Sakha Republic. Registry of the Administrative-Territorial Divisions of the Sakha Republic. Aldansky District .
External links
