The suburb is located in the South of the Polesian Lowland, in the northern part of Kyiv city's area.
The Dnieper, its bays, small rivers, ponds and lakes around Obolon were used as sources of sand for the height elevation for the further building construction, using the hydraulic fill technology.[5] Thus the Obolon landscape was significantly changed by people.
Obolon is isolated from other parts Kyiv city by the Dnieper river with its bays and a group of lakes.
It borders the Opechen [uk] lakes system in the west, which was supposedly created on the place where the legendary Pochaina River [uk] used to be. In 2016 some historians revealed that the river continues to exist and is located in the vicinity of mentioned system of lakes.[6] The east boundary of the suburb is the Dnieper with its bays: the Sobache hyrlo (Dog's river mouth) and the Obolon bay (the former names the Starytsa, that can be translated as a former riverbed, or the Bratsky Staryk). There are Redkyne Lake (Ministerka) and the Verbliud (Camel) bay in the north of Obolon, which was created by the size expansion of Lukove Lake (Ulukovo) when soil from it was being taken. Verbne Lake [uk][7] (Willow) and the Vovkuvata bay are in the south of the suburb.[8]
On the Kyiv map of 1902 year created by city's land surveyor Tairov, Obolon is depicted on the left bank of the Pochaina River mouth, where modern Rybalskyi Ostriv suburb is. There were city's pasture and haymakings marked on the place of the present-day Obolon suburb. All these terrains belonged to Kyiv's administrative division by then - the Ploskyi Uchastok (Плоскій Участокъ, the Flat Area).[10]
Remains of settlements the 1th BC - 2nd AD centuries and the 6th - 7th centuries were found in Obolon.[12]
Flooding of Obolon in 1890s
The first who drew special attention to Obolon was the Ukrainian historian Volodymyr Antonovych, who got 200 bronze Roman coins there in 1876, which were dated the second half of 3rd - the first half of 4th centuries. Then he suggested that there was a settlement in Obolon, whose inhabitants conducted exchange with antiquity cities of the Northern Black Sea. Further Obolon was explored in particular by Turvont Kybalchych,[13]Mykola Biliashivsky, Oleksandr Ertel [uk], A. A. Piantkovsky, Valeria Kozlovska [uk] and Petro Kurinny [uk].[14]
In 1967 the development plan of Kyiv was approved, according to which residential areas would be constructed on wetlands on both sides of the Dnieper. Thus, using the hydraulic fill technology, а sand layer 4–5 metres in height was created above Obolon flood-meadows. In 1972 - 1980 the biggest housing estate of tower blocks in Kyiv was erected in Obolon.[17]
In 1975 a new administrative unit - Minsky Raion was formed. It included the Obolon housing estate. Since the Kyiv administrative subdivision reform in 2001 Obolon suburb has belonged to the eponymous Obolon Raion, which was created on the Minsky Raion basis.[18]
In 1972 - 1980 there is the biggest Kyiv's housing estate of 9 and 16 storey tower blocks erected in Obolon. The estate architects were Grygory Slutsky [uk], Yurii Paskevych [uk], Leonid Filenko [uk], M. I. Kulchynsky, Z. G. Klebnikova and I. G. Verymovska. It is locally famous for its honeycomb-like neighborhood planned development with high-rising multi-story apartment complexes (see Public housing).
In 1980 in Obolon was officially opened the Obolon beer brewing company commemorated to the 1980 Summer Olympics.
