| The Arbat is Moscow's most charming and lively pedestrian street. Once a bohemian quarter of the city, littered with cafes crammed full of the capital's intellectual elite, the Arbat still retains a vibrant and artistic air today, with souvenir stalls selling traditional Russian gifts, artists offering original canvases and street performers entertaining the shoppers. The root of the name "Arbat" probably comes from the Slavonic word gorbat, meaning "hilly ground", although it is equally as possible that the word stems from the Arabic word arbad, meaning "suburb". The latter word may well have been used to describe the Arbat area, as in the 15th century only the Kremlin itself was regarded as the city proper, and the area was used to great caravans of goods arriving from the East, so an Arabic word could well have been assimilated into the local dialect. |
