Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Irkutsk
The city of Irkutsk is located in south-eastern Siberia, about 120 km from the Mongolian border and about 50 km from the southern tip of Lake Baikal. Its population has been decreasing over the years and now stands at around 587,000 people. In the architecture, fine wooden houses from the 19th century coexist with tsarist buildings and buildings from the Soviet era. It was benefited with significant investments in the period of the former USSR including an aircraft production center. Both the Trans-Siberian Federal Highway and the Trans-Siberian Railway pass through Irkutsk on the other side of the Angara River. The city has an important international airport and another local one.
The distance to Moscow traveling on the Trans-Siberian Railway is 5153 km and normally this journey takes 3 days and 4 hours of travel, although the members of the Diadem group had taken 7 days, due to the stops.…