Location: Kytyl- Dyura Map
Area: 0.485 million ha
Official site
The Lena Pillars Natural Park is a huge territory with an
area of 80 thousand hectares, which stretches for 220 km along
the banks of the Lena River. It is located on the territory of
the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) 180 km from its capital - the
city of Yakutsk. At the same time, the Lena Pillars occupy only
a 40-kilometer coastal line along the right bank of the Lena. In
the rest of this natural park you can also admire the Sinsky
pillars and similar rocks on the Buotama River. But we'll talk
about this a little later. Let's first figure out what natural
objects are usually called pillars, how they appear and why they
attract travelers from all over the world.
Pillars are
usually called high single rocks resulting from soil erosion. In
addition to the Lena Pillars, similar natural objects in Russia
are found in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Komi Republic.
However, unlike these places, on the territory of Yakutia on the
banks of the Lena River there are an unusually large number of
pillars! They occupy as much as 40 km of coastline, their height
ranges from 100 to 200 meters and together they form a unique
natural complex reminiscent of a real stone forest.
Lena
Pillars are limestone rocks. Once upon a time, this place was
the bottom of a prehistoric sea, but the geological changes
taking place on the planet led to the rise of the Siberian
Plate. So limestone deposits on the seabed became real mountains
on the surface of the planet. Then another 200 million years
passed before wind, precipitation and the hot sun removed any
noticeable part of the rock. And about 400 years ago, this
mountain range turned into the very Lena Pillars that we can see
now.
A journey through the Lena Pillars park is not only a walk along the
right bank of the Lena River. On its territory there are many unique and
interesting places - both historical and cultural, as well as natural
attractions. In addition, the Lena Pillars are an ideal place for real
eco-tourism! We recommend visiting and seeing in the park:
the
Sinyaya River, which also boasts its own Sinsky pillars. Of course, they
are slightly smaller than Lensky (up to 100 meters in height), but no
less beautiful;
the Buotama River with its very small pillars,
which is also part of the national park;
tukulan "Saamys Kumaga" is
the main mystery of the nature of Yakutia. This huge sandy massif
appeared along the banks of the Lena River among the impenetrable taiga.
Scientists are still arguing where so much sand came from in the Yakut
forests and how it turned into a real desert on permafrost;
bisonarium "Ust-Buotama" is a unique nursery on the banks of the Buotama
River, where wood bison are raised and they are trying to restore their
population in Yakutia. These northern animals once lived in the local
taiga, tundra and forest-tundra, but became extinct many years ago. And
so, in 2006, the first herd of forest bison was brought to Yakutia from
Canada;
petroglyphs, or ancient rock paintings, were discovered
in several places in the area. In addition, caves with traces of
primitive people were found in the local rocks. Yakut cave paintings are
made with yellow paint made from minerals. They depict animals, people,
horsemen with banners and runic writing. One of these ancient rock
carvings with a horseman can be seen on the modern coat of arms of the
republic.
On the way, you should definitely check out two unique
museums on the territory of Yakutia: the world’s only specialized
Mammoth Museum and the “Kingdom of Permafrost,” an abandoned adit carved
out of one of the hills in the suburbs of Yakutsk. Both places are
located in the capital of the republic. Well, if you come here in
winter, don’t forget to go to the fish market - the largest in the
northeastern part of Russia.
Before you go on an excursion to the pillars themselves, you first
need to get to the capital of Yakutia - the city of Yakutsk. A one-way
flight from Moscow will take about 7 hours. Please remember that the
time difference is +6 hours. It turns out that you will have to spend
almost the whole day on the road (about 13 hours). But on the way back
you will make up for lost hours. And it turns out that the road to
Moscow will take only 1 hour!
Several airlines fly to Yakutsk
from major Russian cities - Aeroflot, S7, Nordwind and the local air
carrier Yakutia. Most flights arrive in the first half of the day. We
recommend buying tickets for those arriving in Yakutsk early in the
morning. This way you will have another whole day to explore the city
and its attractions. You will definitely be able to handle this within
24 hours and will be able to continue your journey the very next day.
The most convenient way to get to the national park is by water, so
most tourists prefer to come here in the warm season. During the summer,
you have several options to get to the park: join an organized tour in
advance, buy a cruise ship ticket on the spot, or rent a boat. Let's say
right away that the journey takes several hours one way. Therefore, a
trip on a small boat will be quite tiring. It is better to buy tickets
for cruise ships in advance, since trips to the Lena Pillars natural
park are very popular among the local population.
Well, if you
come to Yakutia in winter, then the only chance to see the beauty of the
Lena Pillars is to go on an organized or individual expedition. Far
beyond the borders of Yakutsk you will have to travel on Trekol
all-terrain vehicles. Therefore, organizing a trip on your own in winter
is quite difficult. Of course, there are companies that can do this for
you, but the cost of such an individual trip will be extremely high.
RussiaDiscovery has both summer and winter expeditions to the Lena
Pillars. Do you want to go on an active tour with rafting along the Lena
(the fourth longest in the world) and Sinaya rivers, fish for unique
northern fish, swim in a cold Siberian river and enjoy the silence of
nature, amazing landscapes and unusually clean air? Then our summer
expedition awaits you - “Golden Rocks of Yakutia”, which includes:
rafting on inflatable catamarans on the Lena and Sinaya rivers - people
without special training and families with children can join;
climbing to observation platforms and visiting the most beautiful
grottoes;
trips to caves with rock paintings of ancient people and a
walk through the sacred places of Yakut shamans;
excursion to the
bisonarium and a trip to the sand dune (tucuman) in the Yakut taiga.
For those who want to experience the strength of the famous Yakut
frost (after all, the world’s Pole of Cold is located on the territory
of Yakutia), we have prepared a winter trip - “Expedition to the Pole of
Cold”. As part of this trip, you will not only climb the famous Lena
Pillars, but also:
learn how the everyday life of Even reindeer
herders goes;
meet the charming Yakut Laika and visit farms where
special breeds of Yakut horses are bred;
undergo a pagan rite of
purification;
take part in ice fishing;
visit the Tomtor
ethnographic museum, where you will get acquainted with the culture of
the peoples of Yakutia;
you will visit the “Kingdom of Permafrost”,
where you will find out what it looks like from the inside (after all,
most of Yakutia is located in the permafrost zone);
meet the “Yakut
Father Frost” - the lord of the cold, Chyskhaan.
Rock formations, the height of which reaches 220
meters above the river level (abs. marks - up to 321 m), are composed of
Cambrian limestones. Tectonically, the Lena Pillars lie within the
Siberian Platform. The beginning of the formation of the rocks that
formed this natural monument is usually dated to the early Cambrian -
560-540 million years ago. The formation of the Lena Pillars as a
landform is dated to a much later period - about 400 thousand years ago,
that is, relatively recent geological time. The territory of the
Siberian platform was subjected to gradual uplift, resulting in the
occurrence of faults and the formation of deep river valleys. This led
to the activation of karst processes, which, along with the ongoing
erosional weathering, gave rise to such bizarre and diverse forms of
rocks composed of carbonate rocks.
The Decembrist A. A.
Bestuzhev-Marlinsky spoke enthusiastically about the Pillars:
“Some
kind of holy silence lies on the virgin creation, and the soul merges
with the wild, but majestic nature”
The Lena Pillars Nature Park was organized on the
basis of Decree of the President of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)
dated August 16, 1994 No. 837 and government decree dated February 10,
1995 and is subordinate to the regional Ministry of Nature Protection.
The area of the park is 1353 thousand hectares, the park consists of two
branches - "Pillars" and "Sinsky". The main task of the park is the
development of ecological tourism.
In addition to the well-known
stone "pillars", there are such remarkable objects in the park as
fluttering sands-tukulans with separate sections of the cold northern
sandy desert, the site of an ancient man at the mouth of the
Deering-Yuryakh stream, during the excavations of which stone tools were
found (Diring culture ) and burials of the Late Neolithic (Ymyyakhtakh
culture, II millennium BC). There are unique permafrost ecosystems.
Fossilized remains of representatives of ancient fauna were found in the
park area: mammoth (Mammulhus primigenius Blum), bison (Bison priscus
Boj), woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiguibatis Blum), etc.
According to natural criteria, the Lena Pillars were included in the
UNESCO World Heritage List on July 2, 2012 during the 36th session of
the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which was held from June 22 to July
6, 2012 in St. Petersburg (earlier, in 2009, such an attempt failed).
470 species of vascular plants grow on the territory of the park, among them 21 species are listed in the Red Book. 202 species of mosses, 83 species of lichens and 76 species of fungi were identified. There are 42 species of mammals in the park. Bear, lynx, wolf, fox, sable, weasel, elk, roe deer, white hare, squirrel, etc. are widespread. 152 species of birds nest in the national park. There are 21 species of fish in the rivers.