Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast,Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring.While the official name of the town is Rostov, it is better known to Russians as Rostov Veliky, i. e. Rostov the Great. This name is used to distinguish it from Rostov-on-Don, which is now a much larger city. Rostov Yaroslavsky is the official name of its railway station (due to its position in Yaroslavl Oblast); the town itself is hardly ever called by that