Kazan

Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan, at the meeting of the Volga and Kazanka rivers, a city of more than 1.3 million, nearly half of them Tatars. It joins Russian and Tatar cultures in a way found nowhere else. It marked its millennium in 2005, and in 2009 took the official title "Third Capital of Russia".

At its heart is the white Kazan Kremlin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. Inside, the Kul Sharif Mosque stands beside the sixteenth-century Annunciation Cathedral and the leaning Söyembikä Tower, named after the last queen of the Kazan Khanate. The mosque was rebuilt between 1997 and 2005 on the site of the khanate's principal mosque, and holds 6,000 worshippers.

From the Kremlin runs Bauman Street, closed to traffic, and nearby is the Old Tatar Quarter, with its wooden houses and mosques. A morning boat ride away is the island town of Sviyazhsk, founded in 1551, whose Assumption Cathedral and Monastery joined the UNESCO list in 2017.

Kazan is the easiest Russian city for a Muslim visitor: most restaurants in the centre serve halal meat as standard, and Tatar cooking is among the best in the country. It is 1 to 1.5 hours by air from Moscow.