Sambia () or Samland () or Kaliningrad Peninsula (official name, , Kaliningradsky poluostrov) is a peninsula in the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea. The peninsula is bounded by the Curonian Lagoon to the north-east, the Vistula Lagoon in the southwest, the Pregolya River in the south, and the Deyma River in the east. As Sambia is surrounded on all sides by water, it is technically an island. Historically it formed an important part of the historic region of Prussia. Names Sambia is named after the Sambians, an extinct tribe of Old Prussians. Samland is the name for peninsula in the Germanic languages. Polish and Latin speakers call the area Sambia, while the Lithuanian name is Semba. History Reference to the Sambia Peninsula begins with Greek traveller Pytheas, referring to an amber island called "Abalus". The name probably described the whole lagoon area known in Finnic as AVA (open expanse = lagoon) and -LA (place of) Historic scholars could not find the mysterious amber island because the Sambia Peninsula did not look like an island since the whole Baltic area that was depressed by the Ice Age glaciers has been rising many meters in the last thousands of years and was no longer looking like an island by the 10th century. Based on finds of prehistoric amber carvings, nomadic boat using hunter gatherers were attracted to the area as early as 6,000 years ago,according to archeology. Sambia was originally sparsely populated by the Sambians. The German Teutonic Knights conquered the region in the 13th century. The church administration was placed under the Bishopric of Samland, established in 1243. Settlers from the Holy Roman Empire began colonizing the region, and the Sambian Prussians gradually became assimilated. The peninsula was the last area in which the Old Prussian language was spoken before becoming extinct at the beginning of the 18th century. In 1454, the region was incorporated by King Casimir IV Jagiellon to the Kingdom of Poland upon the request of the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation. After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War, since 1466, it formed part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Order. The peninsula became part of the Duchy of Prussia, a vassal duchy of the Kingdom of Poland, founded when Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, the 37th Grand Master, secularized the Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights in 1525. The Margraviate of Brandenburg