Beginning in late May and lasting to to early July the nights are bright in St Petersburg, with the brightest period, the White Nights, normally lasting from June 11th to July 2nd. The White Nights (Beliye Nochi) are a curious phenomenon caused by St. Petersburg’s very northerly geographical location - at 59 degrees 57? North (roughly on the same latitude as Oslo, Norway, the southern tip of Greenland and Seward, Alaska). St. Petersburg, the world’s most northern city with a population over 1 million stands at such a high latitude that the sun does not descend below the horizon enough for the sky to grow dark. During this period the sky is so bright that the city does not turn on the street lights at night.

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