Sambia Peninsula

Sambia (Самбийский полуостров) or Samland (Земландский полуостров) or Kaliningrad Peninsula (official name, Калининградский полуостров, Kaliningradsky poluostrov) is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. The peninsula is bounded by the Curonian Lagoon to the north-east, the Vistula Lagoon in the southwest, the Pregolya River in the south, and the Deyma River in the east. As Sambia is surrounded on all sides by water, it is technically an island. Historically it formed an important part of the historic region of Prussia. Sambia is named after the Sambians, an extinct tribe of Old Prussians. Samland is the name for the peninsula in the Germanic languages. Polish and Latin speakers call the area Sambia, while the Lithuanian name is Semba. Reference to the Sambia Peninsula begins with Greek traveller Pytheas, referring to an amber island called "Abalus". The name probably described the whole lagoon area known in Finnic as AVA (open expanse = lagoon) and -LA (place of) Historic scholars could not find the mysterious amber island because the Sambia Peninsula did not look like an island since the whole Baltic area that was depressed by the Ice Age glaciers has been rising many meters in the last thousands of years and was no longer looking like an island by the 10th century. Based on finds of prehistoric amber carvings, nomadic boat using hunter gatherers were attracted to the area as early as 6,000 years ago,according to archeology. Sambia was originally sparsely populated by the Sambians. The German Teutonic Knights conquered the region in the 13th century. The church administration was placed under the Bishopric of Samland, established in 1243. Settlers from the Holy Roman Empire began colonizing the region, and the Sambian Prussians gradually became assimilated. The peninsula was the last area in which the Old Prussian language was spoken before becoming extinct at the beginning of the 18th century.