Siberia

Located to the east of the Ural Mountains, Siberia is one of the largest areas of the world. It is also amongst the most sparsely populated, and for good reason. In summertime it can be warm, almost hot in certain places. In winter it is bitterly cold, temperatures plummet well below zero regardless of what scale one uses. It does have it's inhabitants. Cities like Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, Vladivostok or Okhotsk number in the tens or even hundreds of thousands. Their populations the result mostly of migration from the west. There are also smaller native communities that have survived and continue to do so, such as the Tatars. However these settlements are few and far between in a landscape of near ceasless forests, lakes and rivers. One can walk for days and encounter nothing but trees, rivers, trees, squirrels, trees, reindeer, trees, snow, trees, mountains, trees, diamonds, trees, lakes, and yet more trees.
There is plenty of wealth to be found in Siberia, diamond, gold and oil deposits are known, or rumoured to exist, to say nothing of the vast conifer forests offering an endless supply of softwood timber for any practical requirements. However this is a vast wilderness nonetheless and a hard landscape to endure, especially in winter where nights are long, days are short and the snows are interminable. Even if such riches could be found, just reaching them will be a mighty effort in it's own right.
Once the destination of "internal exiles" of the old Empire who would have nothing to do but count the trees on their arrive; an expression Russians still use today. Siberia remains an inhospitable vastness in which the potential for riches exists no doubt, but who can claim the means, or more importantly, the will, to find and make use of them?

Type

Landmass