Siberia is an extensive geographical region lying north of Asia. It has been a colonial possession of Russia since the latter half of the 16th century, after the Russians conquered lands east of the Ural Mountains. Siberia is vastly sparse, covering an area of over 13.1 million square kilometres (5,100,000 sq mi), the vast majority of Russia's land area, but is home to merely 1/5th of the country's total population. Novosibirsk is the centre of the Siberian Federal District since May 13, 2000.
