Tucked away behind a cluster of buildings at the corner of busy Prospekt Mira and Grokholsky Pereulok is Moscow's very own garden of Eden. Founded in 1706 by Peter the Great as a place to grow medicinal herbs for study by medical students, today the Moscow State University Apothecary's Garden is the perfect place to forget the stresses of the city. The garden's compact, 1,000-square-meter territory features more than 2,000 varieties of trees and shrubs, including Russia's oldest willow and a tree planted by Peter the Great himself. The garden also features an orangerie with a collection of tropical and subtropical plants, several fish ponds and a childrens' playground. The garden's employees, many of whom are professional botanists, lead educational excursions around the property for the general public on the weekends. There are also occasional evening excursions. The schedule can be found on the garden's web site. From July 10 until September 15, the garden will host pieces from the International Festival of Sand Sculpture. Interestingly, for a place with so much history, tickets to the Apothecary's Garden are sold through touch-screen machines that work much like the average mobile phone pay terminal. But tickets are available for the decidedly old-fashioned prices of 50 rubles for adults, 10 rubles for children.

Moscow State University Apothecary's Garden
26 Prospekt Mira
Tel. 680-5880; 680-6765
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., last entrance at 6:30 p.m.
www.hortus.ru