It is difficult to find a place in Russia that would not be distinguished by its special beauty. There is charm in everything - from the vast snowy expanses of the Far North to the lush abundance of the seaside South. In the list of 20 items, we tried to select the most beautiful places in Russia and photos that would fully reflect its wealth and diversity.
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20. Sikhote-Alin, Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories
The name Sikhote-Alin is of Manchu origin. It means "the ridge of the great western rivers."
Sikhote-Alin is a whole mountainous country with its own special climate, flora and fauna. Its position between the taiga and the subtropics caused a bizarre mixture of flora and fauna of these belts, where the tiger shares space with the brown bear. And from the top of Mount Lysaya a fantastic view of the mountain range and the Sea of Japan opens.
In 1947, an iron meteorite fell in the Sikhote-Alin mountains, which received the same name as the area where it “landed”. The total weight of all the fragments of the space guest (and more than 3500 of them were collected) was 27 tons, and the place of its fall is still popular among scientists and tourists.
19. Big Zeygelan waterfall, North Ossetia
For a long time, only local residents knew about the beauty of this mountain waterfall. It originates in glaciers high in the mountains and descends almost 600 m down. In winter, the waterfall freezes completely, and a majestic sight opens up to the eyes of a tourist - a long strip of ice lace on a brown and black rock.
Let the height of this waterfall be less than that of ten tallest waterfalls in the world, in appearance it will give odds to most foreign ones.
18. Vasyugan swamps, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions
People who consider the swamps ugly have obviously never been to the Vasyugan swamps. This is a huge area in Western Siberia, from where many rivers originate. From a bird's eye view, the spectacle is simply amazing - a huge space dotted with many blue eye-lakes.
It is a pity that it is difficult for a mere mortal to get there - in the summer the swamps are practically impassable.
17. Krasnoyarsk Pillars, Krasnoyarsk Territory
Just a few kilometers from Krasnoyarsk, there is one of the most beautiful places in Siberia - the natural park "Stolby".
From the green, swaying sea of trees, single rocks of gray-pink stone grow, like whales emerging from the water surface. "Pillars" are beautiful at any time of the year - both in summer and in winter, but, in our opinion, they are especially good in autumn.
Surprisingly, all the rocks in the Pillars (and there are more than 100) have names given for their appearance or location. For example, there are rocks called "Lion's Gate", "Monk", "Grandfather", "Bell Tower" and others.
The name is also given to the huge boulders, in abundance "scattered" over the territory of Stolby. The most famous among them is the Elephant, which really resembles a lying elephant in shape. Novice climbers and just energetic teenagers train on it.
16. Avachinskaya Bay, Kamchatka Peninsula
The Sea Gate of Russia, a non-freezing Far Eastern port, is still distinguished by its rare beauty. One of the main attractions of the bay is three rocks at the entrance, “three brothers”, which protect their people from the tsunami.
The shores of the bay are very beautiful - gentle hills overgrown with dense forest, many secluded bays, fenced with sandy spits.
15. Manpupuner Plateau, Komi Republic
The name of the plateau is translated from the Mansi language as "mountain of stone idols". "Idols" are seven pillars, the last that has come down to our times from the mountains of 200 million years ago.
Gradually, nature got rid of unstable rocks, leaving only their very core - giant stone pillars from 30 to 40 m high on a flat grassy plateau. The sight is ancient, pagan, as if you are looking into the depths of centuries. It is not surprising that the ancient Mansi worshiped these stones as deities.
14. Tseyskoe gorge, North Ossetia
The gorge is formed by two mountain ranges, Kalperovsky and Tseysky, and stretches for more than 20 km. It has long been chosen by tourists, so getting there is no problem.
One of the main attractions is the Skazsky glacier. It is dangerous to approach it, so you have to carefully admire the terrifying steel-gray mass of ice and ground rocks from afar.
13. Lake Ladoga, Karelia
This huge freshwater lake has been pleasing people with its beauty for more than one thousand years. Although the most famous place among tourists in Ladoga is the Valaam Islands, every rock, every cliff, every bay of the lake has no less enchanting beauty.
The place where the Svir River flows into Ladoga, the bizarre interweaving of the Ladoga skerries, the Ruskeala marble quarries - all this is definitely worth seeing.
12. Ubsunur Basin, Republic of Tyva
As the name suggests, this is really a hollow - a depression bordered by gentle mountains. It is remarkable, first of all, by the variety of its landscapes, and if at the bottom there is a salt lake surrounded by a sandy desert, then as you move up, nature changes.
Above there are steppes, then forest-steppes, and even higher - dense cedar forests. And above them there are high-mountain tundra and glaciers.
11. Lake Elton, Volgograd region
Already from a distance, bright white crystals of salt sparkling in the sun are visible, bordering the lake. The water in the lake is very salty - one and a half times saltier than the Dead Sea.
The surface of the water itself has a slightly pinkish color in summer, which contrasts beautifully with the blue of the sky and the reddish, salt-covered shores.
10. Divnogorye, Voronezh region
One of the most beautiful places in Russia is the snow-white chalk layers that come to the surface in the Voronezh region. They form bizarre shapes, from mountains to flat white surfaces, only slightly overgrown with grass, and even peculiar trellises and folds.
The sight is very unusual, especially against the background of the surrounding traditional Central Russian vegetation.
9. Blue Lakes, Kabardino-Balkaria
The chain of five lakes located in the Cherek-Balkar gorge is also famous for its beauty. The nature here is very picturesque - steep mountain slopes, dense beech forests, in the distance - mountain peaks.
The lowest of the five lakes is a kind of bright blue color caused by the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the water.
eight.Charsky Sands, Trans-Baikal Territory
A desert is where, according to theory, there should not be any desert - this is what the Chara sands are unique for. They are located in the valley of the same name and are surrounded on all sides by familiar landscapes - taiga with its swamps and streams.
The spectacle is surreal - sand, dunes, shreds of dry grass and almost immediately behind the red sands, snow-capped bluish-white mountains rise.
7. Patomsky crater, Irkutsk region
On the slope of one of the mountains of the Patom Upland there is a large bluish-white cone with a diameter of 76 km at the top. You can see it from afar. The beauty of the crater lies in its alienness, in perfect proportions, as if created by the hand of a giant. In fact, space aliens are hardly involved here; the appearance of a crater is the result of a powerful water hammer.
6. Big Chulchinsky waterfall, Altai Republic
Gorny Altai is rich in picturesque waterfalls - from small, only a meter and a half high, to noisy cascades of water that can be heard from several kilometers away. Chulchinsky waterfall is one of the strongest in Altai; it falls from a height of 160 meters.
A spectacle of fantastic beauty - between the forest-covered mountain slopes, black-gray sharp-angled stones, along which a stream white with foam flies, as the embodiment of the most unbridled nature.
5. Lake Baikal, Eastern Siberia
The largest freshwater lake in the world is located between the mountains of the same name. Both the lake and the mountains are strikingly beautiful. Water of amazing transparency, many islands, white pebble beaches, and, of course, charming locals - Baikal seals.
At present, water rich in useful substances from Lake Baikal is imported to the Celestial Empire, and there are persistent rumors that the Chinese intend to build a bottling plant for drinking water in the Slyudyansky region.
4. Kungur Ice Cave, Perm Territory
One of the largest gypsum caves in the world lies under the Ice Mountain - its length is about 6 km. Of the entire length, no more than one and a half kilometers are available for tourists, but there are enough of them to be enchanted by this magical place.
Ice stalactites and stalagmites, fancifully cut ceiling blocks, many underground lakes, streams and grottoes, "organ pipes" overhead - all this creates a special, like nothing else atmosphere.
3. Putorana Plateau, Krasnoyarsk Territory
The oldest plateau of volcanic origin in the world, as if descended from the pages of the novel by Conan Doyle "The Lost World".
It is an imposing and harsh sight - dark rocks, from which, unable to cut their way, many rivers and streams rush down, forming the largest number of waterfalls in Russia. Because of their large numbers, the plateau received a beautiful unofficial name - "the land of ten thousand lakes and a thousand waterfalls."
The plateau is home to numerous animals, from fox, lynx and sable to wolverine and bighorn sheep. And the fish in local rivers and lakes is apparently invisible: omul and muksun and char and many other species.
But you can only get to all this splendor with the help of a guide. Without it, there is a great chance to get lost in the canyons and gorges of Putorana.
2. Curonian Spit
A unique natural monument - a spit of sand washed up by the sea, separating the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. Only here, perhaps, you can find such a variety of landscapes - from deserts to dense forests and swamps.
And the fauna of the Curonian Spit numbers 290 species of vertebrates, 260 species of avifauna (most of them are migratory) and 889 species of plants.
And all this wealth fit on a strip of sand, in the narrowest place barely 400 m.
1. Valley of Geysers, Kamchatka
The first place in the list of the most beautiful places in Russia is occupied by the Valley of Geysers, created by an entertainer-nature in the southeast of the Kamchatka Peninsula. It seems as if this place itself is in constant motion, changing, growing.
The reason for this impression is the multitude of geysers, large and small, erupting from the crevices of the earth in violent streams of water and steam. It even happens that entire mountain slopes seem to be covered with a white steam veil. The sight is mesmerizing.
However, it is not so easy for a tourist to get into this valley with a unique ecosystem. There can be no question of "wild" tourism, it is prohibited in this area. Travel companies agree with the reserve on helicopter excursions, and the cost of such a tour is about 40 thousand rubles.
Super!!! We live in the most beautiful country in the world !!!!!! And let others be jealous !!!