Mansi blockheads (pillars of weathering) - a geological monument on the Manpupuner ridge (which in the Mansi language means "Small Mountain of Idols"), in the interfluve of the Ilych and Pechora rivers.
There are 7 pillars in total, their height ranges from 30 to 42 meters.
Location: Troitsko-Pechora region, Russia, Komi Republic.
The pillars are located quite far from inhabited places. There is a hiking route from the Sverdlovsk region and Perm region. It takes tourists several days to reach the plateau, but what they see is fascinating.
According to scientists, the Mansiysky boobies are composed of crystalline shale. For 400 million years, the wind destroyed the rock and left only 7 pillars. They say that when you come close to the poles, they hum as if they are talking among themselves.
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The Manpupuner ridge is located on the territory of the Pechero-Ilychsky nature reserve.
Tourists try to get to the ridge in summer, but in winter the weathering pillars are no less beautiful. By the way, in winter, when the rivers are covered with ice, it is much easier to get to the Small Mountain of Idols.
You can get from Troitsko-Pechorsk by car to the village of Priuralsk, then by boat to the Ust-Lyaga cordon. Further on the route you will be taken out by the cordon inspectors with preliminary instructions. The duration of the routes is from 18 to 40 km (there are several routes).
Do not forget to order a pass to enter the Pechora-Ilychsky nature reserve in the village of Yaksha, Troitsko-Pechora region.
In the North of the Urals, at the headwaters of the Pechora River, the main waterway of the Komi Republic and the largest river in the European North, there rises a narrow ridge - belt Kamen with steep slopes and smooth passes, covered with a multicolored carpet of high-mountain tundra. In Mansi, this ridge is called Manpupuner (translated from Mansi as "Small Mountain of Idols"), Komi hunters know it under the name Bolvano-iz (stone blockheads), and tourists gave it a poetic name - Mountain of Stone Idols. This place names is given because of the seven stone giants, lined up in a row on the flat top of one of the southwestern spurs of the ridge. Their height ranges from 29 to 49 meters. All pillars are composed of hard-to-destroy sericite-quartzite schists.
Perhaps the distinctive feature of this miracle is that it is very difficult to get to it, and not everyone will have enough willpower, patience or means - depending on which path to choose. And there are two of them: the first is quite extreme and very long, it includes a trip by train or car from Syktyvkar (the capital of Komi) to Troitsko-Pechorsk, then by car to the village of Yaksha, then - 200 kilometers by motor boat and to conclusion you need to walk about 40 kilometers. The second way is for the lazy and wealthy: by helicopter from Ukhta with refueling in Troitsko-Pechorsk. An hour of flight on a rented MI-8, which has 20 seats, costs at least 40,000 rubles, the round trip takes just over four hours.
The road to Man-Pupy-Ner is very beautiful in itself, at least from the open window of the helicopter. It is a well-known fact that the Komi Republic is a forest region, more than two-thirds of its area is taiga, but you really understand this only when you slowly fly over the ground. The helicopter flies at a speed of only 200 kilometers per hour, and you can see every lake, swamp, every snowfield in the mountains and almost every Christmas tree!
Dummies on Man-Pupy-Nere are visible from afar, which is not surprising - after all, their height is from 30 to 42 meters.
About 200 million years ago, there were high mountains in the place of stone pillars. Millennia passed. Rain, snow, wind, frost and heat gradually destroyed the mountains, and especially the weak rocks. Hard-sericite-quartzite schists, of which the remnants are composed, were less destroyed and survived to the present day, while soft rocks were destroyed by weathering and carried away by water and wind into lower relief.
The closer you get to them, the more unusual their appearance becomes. One pillar, 34 m high, stands somewhat apart from the others; it resembles a huge bottle turned upside down. Six others lined up at the edge of the cliff. The pillars have bizarre outlines and, depending on the place of examination, resemble either the figure of a huge man, or the head of a horse or ram. It is not surprising that in past times the Mansi deified grandiose stone statues, worshiped them.
The time of the year changes, so does the type of terrain. The terrain is very impressive in winter, when the outliers are completely white, like crystal.
In autumn there are fogs, and the Pillars loom through the haze - there is something divine in this spectacle. They are created by nature, but looking at them, it is hard to believe that something like this could be repeated by a person.
Numerous legends are associated with it, before the Weathering Pillars were objects of the Mansi cult.
In connection with the mysterious origin of these pillars, the local population - Mansi, Komi and Russians - created various legends about their appearance.
Ancient Mansi legend
“In ancient times, the powerful Mansi tribe lived in dense forests that approached the Ural mountains. The men of the tribe were so strong that they defeated the bear one on one, and so fast that they could catch up with a running deer.
In the Mansi yurts there were many furs and skins of killed animals. Women made beautiful fur clothes from them. The good spirits who lived on the sacred mountain Yalping-Nyer helped the Mansi, because the wise leader Kuuschay, who was in great friendship with them, stood at the head of the tribe. The leader had a daughter - a beautiful Aim and a son Pigrychum. Far beyond the ridge spread the news of the beauty of young Aim. She was slender, like a pine that grew in a dense forest, and sang so well that deer from the Ydzhid-Lyagi valley came running to listen to her.
The giant Torev (Bear), whose clan hunted in the Kharaiz mountains, also heard about the beauty of the daughter of the Mansi leader. He demanded that Kuuschay give him his daughter Aim. But Aim refused this offer, laughing. The enraged Torev called his giant brothers and moved to the top of Torre-Porre-Iz to seize Aim by force. Suddenly, when Pygrychum with some of the soldiers was on the hunt, giants appeared in front of the gates of the stone city. The whole day there was a heated battle at the fortress walls.
Under clouds of arrows Aim rose to the high tower and shouted: - Oh, good spirits, save us from death! Send Pygrychum home! At the same instant, lightning flashed in the mountains, thunder struck, and black clouds covered the city with a thick veil. - Insidious, - Torev growled, seeing Aim on the tower. He lunged forward, crushing everything in his path. And only Aim had time to descend from the tower when it collapsed under the terrible blow of the giant's club. Then Torev raised his huge club again and hit the crystal castle. The castle crumbled into small pieces, which were picked up by the wind and carried throughout the Urals. Since then, they have found transparent fragments of rock crystal in the Ural Mountains.
Aim with a handful of warriors hid under cover of darkness in the mountains. In the morning we heard the noise of a chase. And suddenly, when the giants were already ready to seize them, Pygrychum appeared in the rays of the rising sun with a shining shield and a sharp sword in his hands, which were given to him by good spirits. Pygrychum turned the shield towards the sun, and a fiery sheaf of light struck the giant in the eyes, who threw the tambourine aside. Before the eyes of the amazed brothers, the giant and the tambourine thrown aside slowly began to turn to stone. In horror, the brothers rushed back, but, falling under the beam of Pygrychum's shield, they themselves turned into stones.
Another legend says that six mighty giants pursued one of the Mansi tribes, going beyond the stone belt of the Ural Mountains. At the headwaters of the Pechora River at the pass, the giants have almost overtaken the tribe. But they were blocked by a little shaman with a face as white as lime and turned the giants into six stone pillars. Since then, every shaman from the Mansi tribe always came to the sacred tract and drew from it his magical power.
Since ancient times, local peoples have deified stone statues, worshiped them. For example, climbing the Man-Pupu-Ner massif was considered the greatest sin.
When you see these very impressive stone hulks with your own eyes, one does not dare to call them simply a “geological monument” or “the bizarre result of a thousand-year work of wind, rain and snow” - rather, you begin to believe in legends. Firstly, because it is difficult to imagine where nature has got so much skill, and secondly, since it is a miracle, it means that its history must be wonderful and even mysterious.
The plateau is located so that when everything blooms on the south side in June, snow still lies on the north side, which begins to melt only in early August. Nature is not stingy with imagination. Water and wind, summer heat and winter frost for millennia as skillful sculptors worked on the stone ridge, removing all unnecessary, in order to sculpt as a result stone idols resembling figures of people, fantastic animals, monsters, sacred statues from Easter Island. Nature continues its work today. Evidence of this is fresh rock falls at the foot of some outliers. This means that, alas, they do not belong to the category of eternal. But so far, the stone guards regularly carry their thousand-year watch at the reserved sources of the Pechora, striking with their grandeur and mysterious mystery everyone who will be near them.
Everyone who has seen the Weathering Pillars notes that being in close proximity to them, you begin to experience an inexplicable feeling of fear. Locals claim that there were ancient temples and a place for spirits to feed. According to those who have visited the plateau, here you don't want to talk, eat, drink, and it's light in your head, not a single superfluous thought. The only desire is to simply contemplate the environment and feel yourself in it.
They say that when you come close to the poles, they hum as if they are talking among themselves.
Seven pillars are considered to be blockheads, but in addition to them on the plateau there are also stone blocks a little smaller, as well as a huge stone wall. All of them are located at a fairly decent distance from each other, at different heights, therefore, to touch each of them, you need to walk more than one kilometer in total. Moreover, on uneven terrain, sometimes on uncomfortable stone ledges, with very strong gusts of wind and in clouds of horseflies.
The Man-Pupy-Ner plateau is a very majestic place, and despite the absolutely vast expanses around here you want to speak only in a whisper. Perhaps because you are afraid to awaken the evil spirits from the legends; or maybe because you realize how insignificant a person is before the forces of nature …