Siberia is a huge mass of land east of the Ural mountains in Russia. Due to its huge size and cold, snowy climate, it has gained a reputation as "uninhabitable," or somewhere that people cannot live.
Siberia is the largest mass of land in the world. If it were its own country, without the other half of Russia, it would still be the largest country in the world. It is also a higher latitude, which means that it is further north, so it is colder. For a comparison, New York City has a latitude of 40.7128 degrees, whereas Omsk has a latitude of 54.9885 degrees.
Luckily, Siberia has a lot of natural resources. Because there is a lot of forests, there is a lot of timber. Siberia also has natural gas, oil and different minerals. These natural resources create jobs, giving people reasons to stay in Siberia.
The two major challenges of living in Siberia are the huge distances and extreme cold. The large distances between communities create lots of challenges in the transportation of goods and people. The cold means that it is harder to do things outdoors in the winter, so there need to be adaptations to handle it.
