Odessa is city at the Black Sea coast of Ukraine, an administrative centre of the Odessa region, the largest port in Ukraine, the large industrial, cultural, scientific and resort center; junction of highways and railways. According to the dates of 2007 there are 1000779 inhabitants in Odessa.

Today four administrative districts are in Odessa: Kievskiy, Malinovskiy, Primorskiy, Suvorovskiy. Odessa has its coat of arms, flag and anthem. The coat of arms of city represents a silver river anchor with four flukes on the dark red background.

The flag is with dark blue lines on a vertical which divide it into three parts - red, white and yellow. The city is located on coast of the Odessa gulf of the Black sea. The most part of city, including the historical center, settles down on the plain raising above the sea about on 50 m. Sources of drinkable water in territory of city and nearby are not present almost, therefore Odessa is supplied with water from the river Dnestr. Near to city there are three large estuaries: Kujal'nickiy, Hadzhibejskiy and Suhoy.

Climate of Odessa region is temperate continental and rather dry. The amount of sunny days in a year is more than 290. Average annual temperature is about +10 C, average annual amount of atmospheric precipitation is about 350 mm. The winter short and soft with average temperature about 0 C, snow and the temperature lower than temperature -10 C are seldom; summer long and hot with average temperature about 25 C, temperatures above 35 C are frequent. Sea beaches, curative dirty of estuaries and mineral sources attract to Odessa a lot of persons on vocation. The resort zone of Odessa extends on tens kilometers on coast of the Black sea there are different beaches and sanatoriums. For today in Odessa for trips are trams, trolley buses, buses and taxis. Also there is a funicular railway, rope-way, dinghies. In city the International airport, railway station and bus station operate.

Odessa is a multinational city. Representatives of tens nationalities lived there. Initial settlers were Greeks, Italians, and Albanians. The most numerous ethnic group in Odessa were Russian. The most part of believers of city are Russian orthodox. There are also Old Believers, Jews, Catholics, Karaites, Islams, etc.

Odessa is the largest seaport of Ukraine, transporting grain, sugar, coal, mineral oil, cement, metals, jute, wood, production of a machine engineering industry. The basic industries are processing of oil, mechanical engineering, metal working, grain, food industry, and woodworking industry, the agricultural and chemical industry. One more original "sight" of Odessa is the industrial and clothes market - "7-th kilometer" (the official name is "Avant-garde"), it is the largest trading complex in the East Europe.

Educational institutions of Odessa are the I.I. Mechnikov Odessa National University, the Odessa State medical university, the Odessa state economic university, the Odessa national law academy, the Odessa national polytechnic university, the Odessa national sea university, the Odessa state academy of building and architecture, the Odessa national academy of telecommunication.

In many ports of the world it is possible to meet graduates of the Odessa higher educational establishment of marine engineering, and marine schools and colleges.

In Odessa are scientific institutes and laboratories, including the oldest scientific research institute of physics, scientific research institute of eye illnesses, scientific research institute of stomatology scientific research institute of balneology and others.

Among world known scientists lived and worked in Odessa are: Ilya Mechnikov (Nobel Prize in Medicine 1908), Igor Tamm (Nobel Prize in Physics 1958), Dmitri Mendeleev, Nikolay Pirogov, Ivan Sechenov, George Gamow, Leonid Mandelstam, Aleksandr Lyapunov, Mark Krein, Alexander Smakula, Waldemar Haffkine, Valentin Glushko, etc.

The outstanding place in a cultural life of city occupies the Odessa Opera and Ballet Theater. Besides this in Odessa are: the Odessa music comedy theatre, the A.V.Ivanov Russian drama theatre, the V.Vasilko Ukrainian drama theatre, the Odessa regional philharmonic society, the youth theater, the Odessa regional puppet show, The Odessa state circus, the Odessa A.Salika municipal theatre of wind music, the Odessa house of clowns.

Poet Anna Akhmatova was born in Bolshoy Fontan near Odessa. The city has produced many writers, including Isaac Babel, Ilf and Petrov, and Yuri Olesha. Vera Inber, a poet and writer, as well as the famous poet and journalist, Margarita Aliger were both born in Odessa. Yakov Landa, Russian writer, was born in 1948 in Odessa (dead in 2005 in Hanover, Germany).