The Gydan Peninsula is a geographical feature of the Siberian coast 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....

. It is roughly 500 km long and 260 km wide. This wide peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

 lies between the estuaries of the Ob

Ob River

The Ob River , also Obi, is a major river in western Siberia, Russia and is the world's seventh longest river. It is the westernmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean .The Gulf of Ob is the world's longest estuary.-Names:The Ob is known to the Khanty people as the...

 (Gulf of Ob

Gulf of Ob

The Gulf of Ob is a gigantic bay of the Arctic Ocean, located in Northern Russia at the head the mouth of the Ob River....

) and Yenisei River

Yenisei River

Yenisei , also written as Yenisey, is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean. It is the central of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean...

s (Yenisei Gulf

Yenisei Gulf

The Yenisei Gulf is a large and long estuary through which the lower Yenisei River flows into the Kara Sea.The Yenisei Gulf is formed by the river widening to an average of 50 km for up to 250 km in a roughly north-south direction, between a latitude of 70° 30' N in the area around...

), which are two of the most important rivers of Russia and the world. The southwestern corner of the peninsula is limited by the Taz Estuary

Taz Estuary

The Taz Estuary is a long gulf formed by the Taz River.It consists of a roughly 250 km long estuary that begins in the area of Tazovskiy town and ends in the Gulf of Ob, which is connected with the Kara Sea...

.

The Gydan Peninsula is mostly flat and there are numerous lakes and rivers on it. Its ground consists of permafrost

Permafrost

In geology, permafrost, cryotic soil or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of...

 and is covered by tundra.

This peninsula has a few arms or subpeninsulas extending northwards into the Kara Sea, where there are some large islands off its shores, like Oleniy

Oleniy Island

Oleniy Island is a single island in the Kara Sea just a few kilometers offshore, north of the coast of one of the arms of the Gydan Peninsula in North Siberia....

, Shokalsky

Shokalsky Island

Shokalsky Island is an island in the Kara Sea, in Russia. It is located on the eastern side of the mouth of the Ob River, off the tip of the narrow northwestern arm of the Gydan Peninsula...

 and Vilkitsky Island

Vilkitsky Island (Kara Sea)

Vilkitsky Island, is an island in the Kara Sea. It is located 40 km northeast of Shokalskogo Island, off the tip of the Gydan Peninsula in North Siberia. This island is bleak and windswept and is covered with tundra. Vilkitsky Island is crescent-shaped and it is divided in two by a narrow...

s. There are two bays in its northern coast, narrow and deep Khalmyer Bay

Khalmyer Bay

The Khalmyer Bay is a bay on the Siberian coast in the Kara Sea. It is located in the Gydan Peninsula and it is roughly 185 km long and 47 km wide at its widest point. Lat 71°30′ N, long 76° E....

 and smaller Yuratski Bay

Yuratski Bay

The Yuratski Bay is an inlet on the Siberian coast in the Kara Sea. It is located in the Gydan Peninsula and it is roughly 45 km long and 30 km wide at its widest point...

.

The Gydan Peninsula is located in the Yamal-Nenets autonomous district administrative region of the Russian Federation. It appears also as Gydansky or Gydanskiy Peninsula in many common maps in English.

A notable archeological find from the peninsula is a mammoth

Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...

 skeleton

Skeleton

The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...

, now housed in a Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

 museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

.