Russia (Россия, Rossiya in Russian) is by far the world's largest country, spanning a little over 150° in longitude. It is organized as the Russian Federation (Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) with members known as federal subjects (sub'yekty federatsii). Russia is primarily a continental nation but it has important coastlines on the Baltic, Black, and Caspian Seas and very long coastlines on the Arctic Ocean and North Pacific Ocean. To guard these coasts it operates hundreds of lighthouses, many of them historic. Yamalo-Nenetsia, more precisely the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and less formally known as Yamalia, is at the northwestern corner of Siberia surrounding the long estuary of the Gulf of Ob (Obskaya guba), the lower course of the Ob River. It is one of the members of the Russian Federation. Although the Gulf is relatively shallow shipping in smaller vessels is heavy during the warmer months and the Gulf has many lighthouses. The Russian word for a lighthouse is mayak (маяк); ostrov is an island, poluostrov is a peninsula, mys is a cape, bukhta or guba is a bay, zaliv is a larger bay or gulf, proliv is a strait, reka is a river, and gavan' is a harbor. Russian lighthouses are owned by the Russian Navy and maintained by the Navy's Office of Navigation and Oceanography (Управление навигации и океанографии). ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Russian light list (RU) numbers are from Russian Navy Publication 2111 (Kara Sea) as reported by the Admiralty. Admiralty numbers are from volume L of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA numbers are from Publication 115. In recent years most of the lights of the Gulf of Ob have been dropped from the Admiralty and NGA lists. This is probably the result of a decision by the Admiralty to not list lights of Russian inland waterways.
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![]() Tambey Light, Tambey, 2015 Anonymous photo |
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![]() Mys Kamennyy Light, Mys Kamennyy, September 2011 Google Maps photo by Roman Spaskov |
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![]() Range Front Light, Novy Port, August 2018 Google Maps photo by Nikolay Goryushkin |
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![]() Mys Povorotnyy Light, Taz Estuary, June 2009 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Aigars Purins; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Yenisey Gulf | South: Ob River | West: Eastern Nenetsia
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Created November 28, 2011. Checked and revised July 10, 2025. Lighthouses: 41. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.