formerly (until 1921) Aleksandrovsk
City (pop., 2001: 815,000), on the Dnieper River in southeastern Ukraine.
In 1770 the fortress of Aleksandrovsk was built to ensure government control over the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks , whose headquarters were nearby. The settlement became a town in 1806. The city expanded during the 1927–32 construction of the Dnieper hydroelectric station, then the largest in the world. The dam was destroyed in World War II but was later rebuilt. Zaporizhzhya has a major iron and steel plant; automobiles are also manufactured.