Krasnodar (formerly Ekaterinodar) is a city and administrative centre of Krasnodar kray (region), southwestern Russia, lying along the Kuban River. It occupies an area 76 thousands square kilometers and borders the Rostov and Stavropol regions and Georgia and is washed by the Azov and the Black Seas. Founded about 1793 as a Cossack guardpost on the Kuban frontier, it developed as a military town. In 1867, after the Caucasian wars, it became a city and centre of the fertile Kuban region, and its prosperity increased following the arrival of the railways in the 1890s. After 1918 it was the capital of the Kuban-Black Sea Soviet Republic and was renamed Krasnodar in 1920. Two thirds of the Krasnodar are plains. The largest of them - the Azov-Kuban lowland - is situated to the north of Kuban River and east of the Azov Sea. The Azov-Kuban basin of subterranean freshwater with inexhaustible reserves of thermal and mineral waters is the largest in Europe. There are more than 1500 hectares of forests in the region. The climate is temperate-continental. On the Black Sea shore (south of Tuapse) - it is subtropical. An average temperature in January is 3-5° C below zero, in July - 22-24° C .