Ukraine is a vast Eastern European country known for Orthodox churches, the Black Sea coast and forested mountains. In the capital Kiev, the golden dome of the Saint Sophia Cathedral stands out, with mosaics and frescoes from the 11th century. The monastic complex of Pečers’ka Lavra overlooks the Dnieper River, a destination for Christian pilgrimages where Scythian funerary vestiges and catacombs containing the mummies of Orthodox monks are preserved.Most of the territory consists of a plain made up of the lower basin of the river Dnepr, which stretches between modest reliefs: at O the Ripiano Podolico and the heights that take their name from the river (which, while describing a bend around it, partly affects the easternmost sector), at E the Alture del Donez. They are geologically ancient reliefs, both reaching the current morphological structure already during the Hercynian orogenesis of the Paleozoic period; in the former, however, crystalline rock formations prior to those of the latter are predominant. On the whole, they are not high and have rounded summit forms. From the southern slopes of these systems, the Bug and Dnestr descend towards the Black Sea, along which the border with Moldova passes. At the eastern end of the territory, the Heights of the Donez take their name from the river that collects a large part of its water, and then head to E, where it flows into the Don. At S the U. overlooks the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, the second dependency of the first, from which it is separated by the Crimean peninsula.
