Monument to Semyon Dezhnev, Maritime explorer monument in Uelen, Russia

The Monument to Semyon Dezhnev is a 16-metre obelisk on Cape Dezhnyov, at the eastern tip of Chukotka, standing on the territory of the abandoned Eskimo settlement of Naukan. It was installed on 26 September 1956; its authors were architect N. D. Chekmotaev, sculptor Z. V. Bazhenova, engineers V. Yanykin, V. Tysheva and E. Morozova, and artist V. Semyonov.

The monument was put up in 1956 to honor Semyon Dezhnev, who led the first recorded voyage through the Bering Strait in 1648. That journey showed for the first time that Asia and North America are separate landmasses.

The cape was renamed for Dezhnev in 1898, on the 250th anniversary of his voyage around Asia's eastern tip. In 1910 a 15-metre larch cross was raised at Naukan by the crew of the transport ship Shilka, with a copper plaque asking sailors to maintain it; local Eskimos were left food and building material to watch over it. The cross was demolished in 1928 as a suspected religious and tsarist symbol.

The obelisk stands 22 km southwest of Uelen, on the site of the abandoned Eskimo settlement of Naukan on Cape Dezhnyov, so access is by boat or helicopter from Uelen. The 16-metre monument rises on the cape's rocky shore, and the weather is harsh most of the year.

Although Dezhnev sailed through the strait in 1648, his journey went unnoticed by European geographers for decades, and the waterway was later named after Vitus Bering, who passed through it in 1728. The cape itself was only officially named after Dezhnev in the 20th century.