| The famous Red Square, the symbol of Russia! The story goes like this: Toward the end of the 15h century, Ivan III gave orders for the housed in front of the Kremlin to be cleared to make way for this square. The square originally served as a market called "torg". The current name of Red Square dates from the 17th century and is derived from the Russian word "kransnyy", which originally meant "beautiful", but later came to mean "red". The association between the color red and communism is purely coincidental! |  |
 | This photo shows us in front of the famous St. Basil's Cathedral. St. Basil's sits on one corner of the Red Square. St. Basil's Cathedral is quite old, unlike the structures in Saint Petersburg. It was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible to celebrate the capture of the Mongol stronghold of Kazan in 1552. The Cathedral was finished in 1561. |
| This photo shows another view of St. Basil's Cathedral. The cathedral was designed by Postnick Yakovlev. According to legend, Ivan was so amazed at the beauty of Yokovlev's work that he had Yakovlev blinded so that he would never be able to design anything so exquisite again! I guess they didn't call him Ivan "the Terrible" for nothing! |  |
 | This photo shows the main altar inside Saint Basil's Cathedral. All of the Cathedrals in Russia have walls packed with beautiful religious icons such as these. |
| This photo shows Lenin's mausoleum, which is also located in the Red Square. The building says "Lenin" in Russian on the front. The red walls and yellow building behind Lenin's mausoleum are part of the Kremlin.
Lenin's mausoleum was built in 1924, against his and his wife's wishes. Lenin's body was embalmed (preserved) and placed here for people to see. Now, you can see him laying down, dressed in a suit, and his face looking like he is sleeping. Many Russians used to visit the mausoleum regularly, but now the visitors are mostly tourists. There are rumors that Lenin's body will soon be moved eslewhere, or burid in the Kremlin wall behind the mausoleum with Stalin. |  Did you know Stalin used to share Lenin's tomb? Yes! Stalin was embalmed for 8 years following his death until Nikita Khrushchev ordered his body be buried in the Kremlin wall during a period of de-Stalinization. You can see photos of both Stalin and Lenin in the mausoleum if you visit Lenin's Mausoleum history page. |
 | This photo shows most of the Kremlin with it's walls, many buildings, and cathedrals. In the distance, to the right hand side of the photo, you can see a large building. That is the Hotel Rossija, where we stayed while in Moscow. This hotel was absolutely huge! The number of rooms varies depending on what you read, but they have somewhere between 2,800 rooms to 3,200 rooms, accommodations for over 5,500 guests! The Hotel Rossija is so huge that they have 4 different lobbies! So, literally, there are 4 hotels within one hotel! Yet, it's location is prime-- it is right across the street from the Red Sqaure, the Kremlin, and St. Basil's Cathedral! |
| This cannon is the Tsar cannon inside the Kremlin. It is located near the Ivan the Great Bell-Tower and is the largest cannon in the world, yet it has never been fired! You can go for a virtual tour of the Kremlin yourself! |  |
 | These religious icons are inside the Cathedral of Annunciation inside the Kremlin. |
| This is the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer (or Christ the Savior). It is a rebuilt structure of the original which was blown up on Stalin's orders in 1931. He wanted to make room for his "Palace of Soviets" which was going to be a 1034 ft (315m) tower topped by a 100 meter statue of Lenin. However, Stalin never saw his Palace of Soviets. Instead, the site was occupied by a large outdoor swimming pool until the reconstruction began in 1994. The cathedral was finished in 1997. |  |
The Novodevichy Convent was founded by Basil II in 1542 to Commemorate the capture of Smolensk from the Lithuanians. At that time, only the Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk was built. Most of the other buildings we added in the late 17th centure by Peter the Great's half-sister, Sophia. Peter banished Sophia to this convent after she stole the throne from him and he reclaimed it in 1689. Sophia spent the rest of her life her and is buried here as well. |
| This is the Moscow State University. It's architecture is unique to the Stalinist-gothic style. There are six other skyscrapers in Moscow similar to this one. Two of them are hotels, two are ministry/government buildings, and two of them are apartment building. |  |
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