The Ukrainian name is Ки́їв, written in the Ukrainian alphabet (from Cyrillic), and usually rendered in Latin letters (or romanized) as Kyiv.
Before standardization of the alphabet in the early 20th century, the

Geography
Geographically, Kyiv is located on the border of the Polesia woodland ecological zone, a part of the

Legal status and local government
The municipality of the city of Kyiv has a special legal status within Ukraine compared to the other administrative subdivisions of the country. The most significant difference is that the city is considered as a region of

Modern Kyiv is a mix of the old (Kyiv preserved about 70 percent of more than 1,000 buildings built during 1907–1914) and the new, seen in

The first known humans in the region of Kyiv lived there in the late paleolithic period (Stone Age). The population around Kyiv during the Bronze Age formed part of the so-called

According to the official registration statistics, there were 2,847,200 residents within the city limits of Kyiv in July 2013.
Historical population
According to the

Kyiv was the historic cultural centre of the East Slavic civilization and a major cradle for the Christianization of Kyivan Rus. Kyiv retained through centuries its cultural importance and even at