The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; , Chukotskiy poluostrov, short form , Chukotka), at about 66° N 172° W, is the easternmost point of continental Asia.
Peninsula Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen. The Chukotka Mountains are located in the central/western part of the peninsula, which is bounded by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the east, where at its easternmost point it is only about from Seward Peninsula in Alaska; this is the smallest distance between the land masses of Eurasia and North America. The peninsula is part of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of Russia."Chukchi Peninsula". Encyclopedia.com. Accessed September 2010.
The peninsula is traditionally the home of tribes of the indigenous peoples of Siberia as well as some Russian settlers. It lies along the Northern Sea Route, or Northeast Passage. Industries on the peninsula are mining (tin, lead, zinc, gold, and coal), hunting and trapping, reindeer raising, and fishing.
In the Bering Strait about halfway between the peninsula and the Seward Peninsula are the fairly small Diomede Islands; the western one is Big Diomede, Russia and the eastern one is Little Diomede Island, Alaska. The much larger St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, is about southeast of the peninsula's southernmost point.
The Eturerveyem River flows into Kolyuchin Bay on the peninsula.
See also Arctic Alaska-Chukotka terrane Providence Bay Chukotka sled-dog
References
Further reading
Frazier, Ian, Travels in Siberia, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010. Travelogue in Siberia.