The nature of Russia is our main wealth. We have the highest mountain in Europe, the largest forest, and the largest swamp, a pink lake and the most unusual desert.
1. Baikal
Baikal is the deepest lake in the world (1642 meters). It ranks first in the world among fresh lakes in terms of fresh water volume (19% of world reserves). There is more of it than in all the five Great Lakes combined. If all the water on Earth suddenly disappears, Baikal will be able to provide water to mankind for five years.
2. Valley of Geysers
There are about 100 geysers in the Valley of Geysers, 20 of them are large. They are equal in size to the hot springs of Iceland, Yellowstone National Park and New Zealand. Their uniqueness is that they are located in a small area (only 5 km along the Geysernaya River).
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3. Krasnoyarsk pillars
There is such a phenomenon - "stolism" - a fanatical desire to conquer the Krasnoyarsk rocks without insurance. The pillars are located 3-7 km from Krasnoyarsk, there are more than a hundred of them and each has its own name. Their age is 500 million years.
Their height reaches 90 meters. The uniqueness of the pillars is that a reserve was created here in 1925, on the territory of which there are about 1300 species of plants, 58 species of mammals live, 199 species of birds live. About 200 thousand tourists come to admire the Krasnoyarsk pillars annually.
4. Vasyugan swamps
This is the world's largest swamp system in the north of the Tomsk region on the plateau between the Ob and Irtysh. The swamps are 10 thousand years old. The area is more than 53 thousand km², the length of the bogs from west to east is 573 kilometers.
Each year the swamp conquers new territories. It is a source of water, a reservoir of oil and gas, peat, an area of untouched nature, inhabited by rare species of birds and animals.
5. Komi forest
The primeval Komi forest became the first natural site in Russia, recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage. This is a huge untouched natural area (15% of the territory of the Komi Republic).
The uniqueness of the forest lies in the fact that the nature here has retained its original appearance. Not so long ago, gold deposits were discovered in the Komi forest. But the state decided that the virgin forest is more expensive than gold, so its production was frozen.
6. Vottovaara
Vottovaaru - a mountain in Karelia - is called "Russian Stonehenge". There are megaliths, lakes, bizarre trees and even a stone staircase. "Stonehenge" Vottovaara is called because of the seids, huge stones that are located here.
There are several versions of their appearance. According to one of them, the sinking of the glacier led to such an arrangement of stones, on the other, the reason was the earthquake that occurred here BC. Some scholars believe that the seids are of artificial origin and had a cult purpose among the Sami.
7. Weathering pillars
The weathering pillars on the Manpupuner mountain in Komi are also called “Mansi balvans”. These are 7 rocks with a height of 32 to 42 meters. They are called pillars of weathering because mountains were located here 200 million ago, over time they collapsed, exposing the remnants of solid rocks. Previously, these stone statues were worshiped by the Mansi, today the pillars are a unique and inaccessible geological monument.
8. Elbrus
Elbrus is a volcano in the western part of the Caucasus Range, which has been inactive for about 2 thousand years. Its height is 5642 meters. It is the highest mountain in the Caucasus, the highest mountain in Europe and the highest point in Russia.
Elbrus is covered with 23 glaciers, the area of which is more than 130 square kilometers. Elbrus supplies water to almost the entire North Caucasus. Its glaciers give life to three large rivers - Kuban, Malka and Baksan.
9. Lena Pillars
Lena Pillars are located only 140 km from Yakutsk (for those places, this is a trifling distance). In their present form, they appeared 400 thousand years ago, as a result of the uplift of the Siberian platform, which made the river valleys deeper.
Some of the pillars are 150 meters high. For geologists, the Lena Pillars are a real find: among these rocks, many rare fossils of extinct animals are found, for example, a mammoth, a woolly rhinoceros, a Lena horse.
10. Putorana plateau
The Putorana Plateau is located in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. The name translated from Evenk means "lakes with steep banks". Its length is almost 500 km and an area of 250 thousand km², which is comparable to the size of Great Britain. The city closest to the plateau, Norilsk, is located 300 km from it.
The Putorana Plateau is a unique natural reserve. There are 25 thousand lakes and a lot of animals, which is not typical for these northern latitudes. Included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
11. Curonian Spit
The Curonian Spit is an almost 100 km long narrow strip of land that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the rest of the Baltic Sea. And on it are dunes. The drifting dunes on the Curonian Spit are the highest in Europe (from 30 to 60 meters). Every spring and autumn between 10 and 20 million birds fly over the coma. The Curonian Spit is also unique for its "dancing forests". Since 2000, the Curonian Spit has been included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
12. Kungur cave
The Kungur Ice Cave is one of the largest in the world and the only cave in Russia specially equipped for excursions. It is located in the Urals, between Perm and Yekaterinburg.
The age of the Kungur Ice Cave is almost 10-12 thousand years. The total length of the corridors is about 6,000 meters, and the length of the tourist path is 1.5 km. The cave has 58 rooms and about 70 lakes. Some grottoes reach 50-100 meters in length and 20 meters in height.
13. Lake Troitskoe
You cannot swim in Lake Troitskoye on the Maly Semyachik volcano - it has a very high concentration of sulfur and acid. This "water" can even corrode the aluminum blades of the oars. This lake has a very bright color - bright green - due to the combination of hydrogen particles with acids.
Due to cracks at the bottom, the depth of Trinity Lake is constantly changing. The temperature also changes - from 20 to 60 degrees.
14. Caldera Uzon
The Uzon caldera in Kamchatka is a unique natural monument and biogeocenosis object. It is rich in flora and fauna, but the local lakes are especially impressive. One of them is filled with weak sulfuric acid, mercury and sulfur are released around the others. Minerals are literally forming before our eyes. The most interesting thing is that these lakes are inhabited, bacteria that produce acid live in sulfur, archaea live in others - one of the oldest forms of life, and thionic bacteria.
15. Lake Elton
Elton is a drainless, self-sedimentary lake in the Pallasky district of the Volgograd region, the largest salt lake in Europe with healing brine and mud. The largest mineral lake in Europe by area. Its mineralization is 1.5 times higher than in the Dead Sea. Due to the algae Dunaliella salina contained in the water, the color of the lake is reddish. Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, Elton has been used for salt extraction.
16. Zeigalan waterfall
Zeigalan waterfall in North Ossetia is the highest waterfall in Europe. Its height is more than 600 meters. Most Europeans, however, do not even know about it and consider the Swiss Rheinfals waterfall the highest. Zeigalan, originates in one of the gorges at an altitude of 4000 meters. Geologists say that this unique natural circus, on the slopes of which waterfalls are born, is the mouth of an ancient volcano.
17. Lake Proval
The unique and one of a kind Lake Proval is located inside the laccolithic mountain Mashuk in Pyatigorsk. The diameter of the cave in the form of a narrowing funnel with a lake at the bottom is at its widest point as much as 15 meters, and its height is 41 meters.
Due to the sulfur and bacteria contained in the water, the water in the lake is bright turquoise. Its temperature ranges from 26 degrees above zero.
18. Rotten Mountain
Rotten Mountain is the largest mud volcano (blevak) in the Russian Caucasus. It is located not far from Temryuk. Of course, it can be called a mountain with some exaggeration. This plateau is more than a kilometer in diameter, and there are cones and vents on it.
Despite the not very appetizing name, the mud of the Rotten Mountain vomit is not only safe (their temperature is no more than 14 degrees), but also medicinal.
19. Crater lake Elgygytgyn
Elgygytgyn means "non-freezing". This Chukchi lake is unique in that it has never froze through the entire 3 and a half million years of its history. Therefore, its bottom sediments are irreplaceable samples of soil for scientists, which can tell about the geological history. In this respect, Elgygytgyn has no analogues in the world.
20. Lake Svetloyar
Svetloyar is a lake of unique beauty in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Scientists still cannot come to a common conclusion about its origin. There is also a meteorite theory, and glacial, and karst. According to some studies, the last sinking of one of the "terraces" happened not so long ago, about 700 years ago. Just in the years of the invasion of Batu.
Svetloyar was previously considered by the people to be the last refuge of the legendary Kitezh-grad, and after such a conclusion of scientists, the number of pilgrim tourists to it increased several times.
21. Ukok Plateau
The Ukok plateau in Altai is a unique place. Even 2000 years ago he was considered a saint by the Scythians, and Buddhists also consider him a saint. The world community learned about the plateau in 1993, when a well-preserved mummy of a young woman, nicknamed the "Altai princess", or "Princess Ukok", was found here. Since that time, the Altai consider all adversity to be a consequence of the fact that the princess's peace was disturbed. In 1996, the plateau was even declared a "dormant zone" for 10 years, banning any research here.
22. Raspberry Lake
Raspberry Lake is only one of 94 Altai salt lakes. The concentration of salts in it is not less than in the Dead Sea. The salt of the Raspberry Lake, also of crimson color, was supplied to the court of Catherine II. She surprised her foreign guests with this Altai curiosity.
23. Charskaya desert
The Chara desert is the most unusual desert in the world. It is located in Transbaikalia between the Upper and Lower Sakukan rivers not far from the Kodarsky ridge. The desert area is only 50 square kilometers. Nevertheless, this is a real desert, with dunes up to 25 meters high. It is not in vain that it is called "the wonder of the world."
24. Olkhinskoe plateau
Olkhinskoe plateau is a unique nature reserve located just a few hours by train from Irkutsk. The "feature" of the Olkhinsky plateau is rocky outcrops, each of which has a name given in shape: Vityaz, Old Woman, Idol, Tsar's Gate, Lion …
25. Indigirskaya pipe
"Indigirskaya pipe" is the name of the section of the Indigirka river, where it flows for almost 60 km through the Chersky ridge. This is one of the most extreme travel destinations in the world. Rafting is organized here, but no one is advised to participate in them without preparation.
