Red Square, Square in Moscow, Russia

Red Square is a 330-metre-long, 75-metre-wide paved square along the northeast wall of the Kremlin, bounded by the GUM department store and Kitay-gorod to the northeast, the State Historical Museum to the northwest and Saint Basil's Cathedral to the southeast. Its surface is laid with blocks of Crimean gabbro-diabase, crossed by painted white and yellow lines, with the stepped reddish-brown platform of Lobnoye Mesto and Lenin's Mausoleum standing before the red brick Kremlin wall and its crenellations.

The square emerged in the late 15th century as a marketplace outside the Kremlin walls, where merchants and citizens gathered. The name appeared in the 17th century, with the Russian word krasnaya meaning both red and beautiful, initially referring to the splendor of the place.

The name krasnaya originally meant "beautiful", and the square was called Torg (Market) or Pozhar until the current name appears in documents from 1661. Since at least the mid-17th century it has hosted military ceremonies: in 1658 troops lined the square for the Georgian tsar Teimuraz I. Today it is a pedestrian zone used for public events and concerts.

The square is a pedestrian zone, except for the access road to the Kremlin's Savior Gate. It measures 330 metres long and 75 metres wide, and is paved with blocks of Crimean gabbro-diabase. The gentle Vasilyevsky Spusk slope at the southeast end leads down to the Moskva River.

The Lobnoye Mesto, a round stone platform in the middle of the square, served for centuries as a place for tsar declarations and public announcements. Visitors often overlook this simple structure, though it played a central role in the city's political life and still stands between the larger buildings today.