The Kremlin Embankment is located along the Moskva River at the walls of the Kremlin, between Lenivka Street and the Vasilievsky Descent of Red Square. It became the first stone embankment in Moscow.

In the 12th and 14th centuries, under the walls of the Kremlin, there was a ford in the shallow part of the Moskva River where two roads intersected. One of these roads, running along the river, eventually transformed into the Kremlin Embankment. In the 14th century, the wooden Kremlin wall ran along the river itself, and a log bridge was built at the site of the ford. By the end of the 15th century, with the construction of brick walls and towers of the Kremlin located closer to the river, the road along the river was built up, and the bridge was moved downstream, opposite the modern Red Square.

In the late 15th century, the riverbanks were cleared of buildings, and in 1687 and 1693, the Bolshoi Kamenny Bridge was constructed. In 1707 and 1708, earthen ramparts and bastions were built on the riverbank to repel a possible Swedish invasion. After the capital was moved to St. Petersburg in 1713, the embankment became a dumping ground for garbage, which remained there until 1795.

In the 1770s, the embankment was sheathed in logs according to a design by V. I. Bazhenov. After the flood of 1786, the idea of strengthening the bank and facing it with stone emerged. In the 1790s, according to a design by M. F. Kazakov, the Kremlin Embankment was cleared of buildings, a thoroughfare was arranged, the bank was reinforced with stone, and trees were planted. During the demolition of the 18th-century bastions in 1819, the earth was used to raise the embankment, where two rows of trees were planted. In the late 19th century, a horse-drawn tram ran along the embankment, which was replaced in the early 20th century by the tram of the Boulevard Ring "Annushka."

The modern appearance with granite finishing of the sloping retaining wall was acquired in 1936 according to a design by I. A. Frantsuz. Most of the Kremlin Embankment runs along the Kremlin wall, past the Vodovzvodnaya, Blagoveshchenskaya, Taynitskaya, 1st and 2nd Bezimenny, Petrovskaya, and Beklemishevskaya (Moskvoretskaya) towers. Limes grow between the roadway of the embankment and the Kremlin wall.

The Alexandrovsky Garden and the Zotov Chambers (No. 1/9) also open onto the embankment, which is a monument of federal significance and an estate ensemble of the 18th-19th centuries with wings from the 18th and the first third of the 19th centuries. The building houses the Russian National Library.

Near the Alexandrovsky Garden on the embankment is the old mouth of the Neglinnaya River, which has been enclosed in a pipe.