Cape Vilda is a landhead in the Kara Sea

Kara Sea

The Kara Sea is part of the Arctic Ocean north of Siberia. It is separated from the Barents Sea to the west by the Kara Strait and Novaya Zemlya, and the Laptev Sea to the east by the Severnaya Zemlya....

, Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai

Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...

, Russian Federation. This cape is located on the western shore of the Taymyr Peninsula

Taymyr Peninsula

The Taymyr Peninsula is a peninsula in the Far North of Russia, in the Siberian Federal District, that forms the northernmost part of mainland Eurasia and Asia...

, at the western end of the Middendorff Bay

Middendorff Bay

The Middendorff Bay, is a deeply indented bay in the shores of the Taymyr Peninsula. It is located southwest of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago in the Kara Sea and it is open towards the west. This bay is limited on its eastern side by the Zarya Peninsula, named after Baron Eduard von Toll's ship Zarya...

.

The Myachina Islands

Middendorff Bay

The Middendorff Bay, is a deeply indented bay in the shores of the Taymyr Peninsula. It is located southwest of the Nordenskiöld Archipelago in the Kara Sea and it is open towards the west. This bay is limited on its eastern side by the Zarya Peninsula, named after Baron Eduard von Toll's ship Zarya...

, a group of two small islets, lie 3 km north of Cape Vilda.

History

In 1921 Nikifor Begichev led a Soviet expedition in search for Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen

Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen was a Norwegian explorer of polar regions. He led the first Antarctic expedition to reach the South Pole between 1910 and 1912 and he was the first person to reach both the North and South Poles. He is also known as the first to traverse the Northwest Passage....

's 1919 Arctic expedition's crew members Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen

Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen

Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen were two young men from Norway who went with fellow Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen on his 1918 Arctic expedition aboard ship Maud. Peter Tessem was a carpenter and Paul Knutsen was an able-bodiedseaman...

on request of the government of Norway. Checking the remains of campfires, Begichev was able to establish that Amundsen's men had passed Cape Vilda, more than halfway down their journey, and that at that point all was well. Captain Jakobsen, a Norwegian who went with Begichev, found later an abadoned sledge 90 km west of Mys Vil’da, indicating that something had gone wrong with his two ill-fated compatriots.