The full story
The area of Saint Petersburg city proper is 605 8 km2 233 9 sq mi The area of the federal subject is 1 439 km2 556 sq mi which contains the Saint Petersburg proper consisting of 81 okrugs nine suburban towns Kolpino Krasnoye Selo Kronstadt Lomonosov Pavlovsk Peterhof Pushkin Sestroretsk and Zelenogorsk and 21 municipal settlements Saint Petersburg is situated on the middle taiga lowlands along the shores of the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland and islands of the river delta The largest are Vasilyevsky island besides the artificial island between Obvodny canal and Fontanka and Kotlin in the Neva Bay Petrogradsky Dekabristov and Krestovsky The latter together with Yelagin and Kamenny island are covered mostly by parks The Karelian Isthmus North of the city is a popular resort area In the south Saint Petersburg crosses the Baltic-Ladoga Klint and meets the Izhora Plateau The elevation of Saint Petersburg ranges from the sea level to its highest point of 175 9 m 577 ft at the Orekhovaya Hill in the Duderhof Heights in the south Part of the city's territory west of Liteyny Prospekt is no higher than 4 m 13 ft above sea level and has suffered from numerous floods Floods in Saint Petersburg are triggered by a long wave in the Baltic Sea caused by meteorological conditions winds and shallowness of the Neva Bay To prevent floods the Saint Petersburg Dam has been under construction since.