The most beautiful and the longest embankment on the Volga is situated in Samara, one of the five cities of the Volga with an over a million population. The Volga is often called the main street of Russia. It is one of symbols of the country: «Volga, Thou art our mother», says an ancient Russian song. With its length of 3,530 kilometers, it is the longest river of Europe. The first scientist who described the Volga and put it on the map was the ancient Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century. The Volga is a great water and tourist way. Starting from a spring on the marshy Valdai Hills, in the heart of Russia, proceeding through hundreds of lakes, the river carries its waters through the whole central part of the country to the south and runs into the Caspian Sea, forming a huge delta of 800 branches and channels. By a system of canals, the Volga is connected with the seas - Baltic, White, Azov - as well as with the largest Russian cities of Moscow and St Petersburg.