Afrikanda () is a

rural locality In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry are typically describ ...

(an inhabited locality) in administrative jurisdiction of

Polyarnye Zori Polyarnye Zori (, lit. ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located on the Niva River, Lake Imandra, and Lake Pinozero, south of Murmansk. The nearest settlements to Polyarnye Zory are: Zasheek (3&nbs ...

Town with Jurisdictional Territory in

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the northwestern part of the country, with a total land area of . Its only internal border is the Republic of Karelia to the south, and it is bor ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, located beyond the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circl ...

on the

Kola Peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...

at a height of

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. Population: 1,644 ( 2010 Census).

History

The name of the station originated with the conversation of the railway engineers that worked on the nearby rail line. On an unusually hot day, they joked that the locality was "as hot as Africa", and half-jokingly called the future station "Afrikanda"—a name which has stuck. Afrikanda used to be classified as an

urban-type settlement Urban-type settlement, abbreviated: ; , abbreviated: ; ; ; ; . is an official designation for lesser urbanized settlements, used in several Central and Eastern Europe, Central and Eastern European countries. The term was primarily used in the So ...

but was demoted in status to that of a rural locality on January 1, 2005.Law #511-01-ZMO

Transportation

Afrikanda is served by a minor railway station of the same name on the

Kirov Railway Railway between Murmansk on the Arctic Ocean and Saint Petersburg on the broad gauge Russia">Baltic Sea The Kirov Railway (; until 1935 ''Murman Railway'') is a Russian gauge">broad gauge Russian railway network that links the Murman Coast ...

, between Polyarnye Zori and

Apatity Apatity ( rus, Апатиты, p=əpɐˈtʲitɨ, lit. apatites) is a town in Murmansk Oblast, Russia, located along the Murman Railway, west of Kirovsk and south of Murmansk, the administrative center of the oblast. The town is named after one ...

Military

An air base of the same name is located just north of Afrikanda.

References

Notes

Sources

* * {{Authority control Rural localities in Murmansk Oblast Polyarnye Zori Former urban-type settlements of Murmansk Oblast