Apart from Nizhny Novgorod's metropolitan area (including Dzerzhinsk, Bor and Kstovo) the biggest city is Arzamas.

The Makaryev Monastery opposite of the town of Lyskovo used to be the location of the largest fair in Eastern Europe.

[citation needed] Other historic towns include Gorodets and Balakhna, located on the Volga to the north from Nizhny Novgorod.

The sites of Pustyn I and the settlement of Naumovka I, Krasny Bor 5 and others belong to the Mesolithic era in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Burial grounds of the Fatyanovo culture of the Bronze Age were found in the Chkalovsky, Vetluzhsky and Krasnobakovsky districts.

[14] In the course of the regional reform of Peter I in 1708, Nizhny Novgorod with the surrounding lands was added to the Kazan Governorate.

[17][18] On April 21, 1992, the Congress of People's Deputies of Russia approved the decision of the presidium of the parliament to rename the region, amending Art.

The unique architectural construction—the 128-meter (420 ft) steel lattice hyperboloid tower built by the Russian engineer and scientist Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov in 1929—is located near the town of Dzerzhinsk on the left bank of the Oka River.

In addition, 15% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 10% is atheist, and 0.8% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.

In 2002, Moody's rating agency confirmed a Caa1rating based on the region's long-term foreign currency liabilities.

Imports come mainly from Ukraine, Germany, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Austria, Netherlands, China, and the United States.

Today, the region needs serious partners interested in equitable, long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships.