In general, the Sayans are two mountain systems. There is Western Sayan, is there Eastern Sayan. The Sayans are located in Siberia.

Finding the Sayans on the map is easy. Look for Baikal, the Eastern Sayan is located to the left of it, and to the left is the Western Sayan.

Sayans or Sayan mountains are located on the Eurasian continent, in Russia, in the south of Siberia. Approximate coordinates of the mountains on the map: 53 north latitude, 94 east longitude.

Sayan consists of two mountain systems (Western Sayan and Eastern Sayan).

Nai highest point Saiyan - peak Munku-Sardyk(3491 m).

The Sayan mountains are actually a whole mountain system, which consists of the Western Sayan and Eastern Sayan. This mountain system is located in Siberia in the southern part. You can find these mountains on the map just to the west of Lake Baikal, almost on the border with Mongolia.





Sayans- two mountain systems in the south of Siberia: Eastern Sayan and Western Sayan.

The Western Sayan (the highest point of Kyzyl-Taiga - 3121m) does not have glaciers on its peaks, unlike the Eastern Sayan (the highest point of Munku-Sardyk - 3491m)

The Sayan Mountains are located in the southern part of Siberia ( Russian Federation). These mountains are divided into East Sayan and West Sayan. Very rich in the Sayan mountains animal world and flora, there are rivers that belong to the Yenisei basin.



you can find the mountain system on the map by color and by landmarks on the map.

The Sayans are a mountain system in the south of Siberia, there are two mountain systems. Look near Baikal, Eastern Sayan is located along left side from Baikal, and if you look even more to the left, you will see the Western Sayan.

The Sayans are located in the southern part of Siberia. The Sayan Mountains are subdivided into Western and Eastern Sayan - separate mountain systems. The place of their intersection at a right angle is the Central Sayans. Brown bears, sables, snow leopards listed in the Red Book, and other animals are found in these places.

The Sayan Mountains are located in the south of Siberia.





Gorgeous photos of mountains see here: http://www.mountain.ru/article

Sayans(Sayan Mountains)

Tourism: I distinguish between the Eastern Sayan and the Western Sayan.

Read more about the Sayan Mountains here.

The Sayan Mountains are located in the south of Siberia, northeast of Altai, but west of Baikal. This is the territory of Russia and Mongolia. The Sayans are two interlocking mountain systems, but with different reliefs, and therefore the border between them is clearly visible. They are also called East Sayan and West Sayan, they are located almost at right angles to each other. The place where they intersect are called the Central Sayans and form a convex mountain arc to the north.

Sayans (Sayan Mountains) - common name for two mountain systems in the south of Siberia.

There are Western Sayan (length 650 km, height up to 3121 m - Mount Kyzyl-Taiga), consisting of leveled and pointed ridges without glaciation, separated by intermountain basins, and Eastern Sayan (length about 1000 km, height up to 3491 m - Mount Munku-Sardyk ) with typical mid-mountain ridges bearing glaciers. The rivers belong to the Yenisei basin. Mountain taiga prevails on the slopes, turning into mountain tundra.

HARD: camera Nikon D800E, fisheye lens Nikon 16mm f/2.8 AF Fisheye, panorama head 360precision adjuste mk2.
SOFT: Adobe Lr, Adobe Ps, PTGui, Kolor PTP 2.5.3

360° spherical panorama

The Western Sayan in the southwestern part borders on Altai. Its main ridge is the Dividing Sayan Range with the highest point - Mount Kyzyl-Taiga (3121 m). The ridges of the Western Sayan are characterized by steep slopes, indented relief, and vast areas of stone placers. The height of the ridges in the west does not exceed 2500-3000 m, in the east it decreases to 2000 m.

The Eastern Sayan stretches almost at right angles to the Western Sayan from the northwest to the southeast from the Yenisei to Baikal. The ridges of the northwest form a system of "white mountains" (Manskoye, Kanskoye) and "squirrels", which got their name because of the non-melting all year round snow on the peaks. In the central part, in the upper reaches of the Kazyr and Kizir rivers, several ridges form a "knot" with the highest point - Grandiose Peak (2982 m). In the southeast, there are the highest and most inaccessible ridges - Bolshoi Sayan, Tunkinsky Goltsy, Kitoisky Goltsy, Kropotkina, etc. Here is the highest point of the Eastern Sayan - Mount Munku-Sardyk (3491 m), located in the ridge of the same name. It is worth noting a large number of waterfalls.

Between the Sayan ridges there are more than a dozen depressions of various sizes and depths, the most famous of which is the Minusinsk Basin, known for its archaeological sites.

Almost everywhere in the Sayans, dark coniferous taiga spruce-cedar-fir forests prevail, rising in the western and central parts up to heights of 1500-1800 m and more; light deciduous-cedar forests form the upper border of the forest at altitudes of 2000-2500 m.

Alpine landscapes located above the forest line are distinguished by severe and long winters, short and cool summer, strong winds.

It is dominated by both a sharply indented, distinct relief, and leveled watershed spaces covered with shrubs and moss-lichen tundra, alternating with extensive stone placers with almost no vegetation. In more humid areas, subalpine shrubs and meadows are developed, in some places tall grasses. Red and black currants, blueberries, lingonberries, wild strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries grow from berries in river valleys.

The animal world is as rich as the plant world. There are numerous animal trails. In the taiga and mountains you can see deer, elk, musk deer, squirrel, chipmunk, hare. Of the birds, the most numerous are the nutcracker, the jay, and the woodpecker, crossbill, scurry, capercaillie, partridge, hazel grouse are often heard. Siberian grayling, lenok, a lot of taimen are found in the rivers. Typical representatives blood-sucking dipteran insects - mosquitoes, midges, midges - are not numerous here, and they are not in well-blown river valleys.

The Sayan rivers have a mixed snow-and-rain supply, are available for rafting from June to September and belong to the Yenisei basin, the sources of which are the mountain rivers Big Yenisei (Biy-Khem) and Small Yenisei (Kaa-Khem). Biy-Khem is considered the main source of the Yenisei. It starts in the Eastern Sayan, not far from the peak of Topographers. The river is very beautiful and passes through almost uninhabited places in Eastern Siberia.

The length of Biy-Khem is 600 km. The second source of the Yenisei - Kaa-Khem - has a length of about 500 km, originates in the territory of Mongolia.

The taiga landscape, the abundance of mountain streams, waterfalls, lakes and places of striking beauty, almost untouched wildlife, the relative simplicity of tourist routes - these reasons attract the attention of an increasing number of lovers to the Sayans. active rest. There are two unique reserve wildlife: Sayano-Shushensky in the Western and Pillars in the Eastern Sayans.

The largest city located in the Sayans is Krasnoyarsk (on the northwestern tip of the Eastern Sayan).

In the south of Siberia, in the northeast of Altai, to the west of Lake Baikal, there is a mountainous country of amazing beauty - the Sayans. The name of this unusual place came from the name of the Turkic-speaking tribe that once lived here - the Sayans. Untouched nature, taiga landscape, abundance of mountain streams, waterfalls, lakes, unique wildlife sanctuaries - all this has been attracting tourists for a long time.

The Sayans are large: their area is about 250 thousand km². They are located on the territory of two states: Russia and Mongolia - and are close to geographical center Asia (settlement Kyzyl, Republic of Tuva). Sometimes, due to their proximity to Altai, the Sayans are combined into a single Sayan-Altai mountain system.

Sayans

In our country, the Sayans are spread over several regions at once: Buryatia, Krasnoyarsk region, Republic of Tuva and Khakassia. Therefore, the road to the Sayan will depend on the specific destination.

You can get to the Krasnoyarsk Territory by almost any means of transport: if you want by plane to Krasnoyarsk (besides the local airport, there are 26 more in the Krasnoyarsk Territory), if you want by train (to Krasnoyarsk, Mariinsk) or by car (highways M53 and M54).

The Republic of Khakassia also has a large railway junction, airports located in the capital of Khakassia - the city of Abakan, so it is quite easy to get here from Moscow. Abakan is connected with major cities Siberia, Far East.

It is somewhat more difficult to be in Tuva. It is possible to fly to Kyzyl from Moscow, but there are no direct railways there, you must first be in neighboring Abakan and from there you can get to Tuva.

(view of the Sayan Mountains from the picturesque Tunkinskaya Valley)

The Sayans themselves consist of two mountain systems: the Eastern and Western Sayan, which differ in relief, landscape, and much more.

The Western Sayan stretched for more than 600 km from the upper reaches of the Abakan to the junction with the Eastern Sayan in the upper reaches of the Uda and Kazyra rivers. The Eastern Sayan stretches for more than 1,000 kilometers from the northwest to the southeast, from the Yenisei to Baikal. The Sayan mountains consist of many ridges, while the height of the mountains of the Western Sayan is up to 3 thousand, and the Eastern Sayan and up to 3.5 thousand meters.

In the basin of the upper reaches of the Oka, at an altitude of 2000-2200 m, there is the Central Plateau of the Eastern Sayan - the Central Sayan, which the outstanding explorer of northeastern Siberia S.V. Obruchev figuratively called "Tibet in miniature".

(Sayan mountains on the border with Mongolia - Mondy village - Buryatia)

If we talk about the climate, then in the Sayan Mountains it is sharply continental, with long, severe winters and warm, humid summers. In winter it is windy and cold, up to -45 degrees. The average snow thickness reaches three meters, so in winter you can only ski. And at this time the area becomes avalanche-prone!

Snow in the highland zone melts only at the end of June, and falls again in September. While there is snow (from November to May), the "winter" lasts tourist season associated with ski and snowmobile travel.

In summer, when the weather is good, it is warm, even hot, but during bad weather the temperature can drop to 0 degrees and below. average temperature July in the mountains + 17-18 degrees. The weather is very unstable, there are often thunderstorms that are dangerous during ascents, fogs, and a lot of precipitation. Sometimes it can rain non-stop for a whole week. Maximum amount Precipitation (about 70%) falls in summer.

(thunderstorm in the mountains - view from the Okinsky intermountain plateau)

Distinguish Western Sayan (length 600 km, height up to 3976 meters - Mongun-Taiga, which is the top of the ridge of the same name - the highest peak of Eastern Siberia, however, more often this ridge is not attributed to the Sayan Mountains, but is isolated into a separate mountain system - the mountains of Tuva), consisting of leveled and peaked ridges separated by intermountain basins, and Eastern Sayan(length about 1000 km, height up to 3491 m, Mount Munku-Sardyk) with typical mid-mountain ridges bearing modern glaciers. The rivers belong to the Yenisei basin. Mountain taiga prevails on the slopes, turning into mountain tundra.

(view in Orkho-Bom gorge - Oka Sayanskaya river)

Western Sayansin the southwestern part they border on Altai. Their main ridge is the Dividing Sayan Range with the highest point - Mount Kyzyl-Taiga (3121 m).

The ridges of the Western Sayan are characterized by steep slopes, indented relief, and vast areas of stone placers. The height of the ridges in the west does not exceed 2500-3000 m, in the east it decreases to 2000 m.

Eastern Sayansstretch almost at right angles to the West. Their ridges form a system of "white mountains" (Manskoye, Kanskoye) and "squirrels", which got their name because of the snow on the peaks that does not melt all year round. In the central part, in the upper reaches of the Kazyr and Kizir rivers, several ridges form a "knot" with the highest point - Grandiose Peak (2982 m). In the south-east there are the highest and hardest-to-reach ridges - Big Sayan, Tunkinsky Goltsy, Kitoy Goltsy, Kropotkina. The highest point of the Eastern Sayans - Munku-Sardyk (3491 m.) is located in the Great Sayan Range. Between the Sayan ranges there are more than a dozen basins of various sizes and depths, the most famous of which is the Abakan-Minusinsk basin, known for its archaeological sites. It is worth noting a large number of waterfalls.

(the highest point of the Eastern Sayans - Mount Munku-Sardyk - eternal snow)

Munku-Sardyk - the highest point of the Eastern Sayans (3491 m). The section of the Bolshoi Sayan ridge in the region of the summit has the same name. The summit is located on the border of Buryatia and Mongolia.

The Munku-Sardyk ridge has a clear alpine relief. The mountain valleys are of obvious glacial origin. There are several small glaciers on Munku-Sardyk and some other peaks. Currently, the area of ​​glaciers is actively shrinking.

To the north-west of Munku-Sardyk is the Oka plateau, on which the Oka, Irkut and Kitoy rivers originate.

The ridge is mostly composed of granites. In the river valleys up to a height of 2,100 m there are forests, higher on the slopes there are alpine meadows, mountain tundra and stony placers.

The first ascent to the summit was made by G. Rudde in 1858.

(mountain Munku-Sardyk and the lake from which the Oka Sayanskaya takes its source)

Munku - from the Buryat word munkhe - forever, eternal, everlasting, eternal. Sardyk - һardag (sardag) - char. Thus, the name can be translated as "eternal char". Buryat pronunciation Munkhe kardag; sometimes the Buryats call Munkhe Sagaan kardag - "ever-white char", since its top is dressed eternal ice and snow.

(sacred Buryat place at the source of the Oka River)

Almost everywhere in the Sayans, dark coniferous taiga spruce-cedar-fir forests predominate, rising in the western and central parts to altitudes of 1500-1800 m and more; light deciduous-cedar forests form the upper forest boundary at altitudes of 2000-2500 m. Alpine landscapes located above the forest boundary are characterized by severe and long winters, short and cool summers, and strong winds. It is dominated by both a sharply indented, distinct relief, and leveled watershed spaces covered with shrubs and moss-lichen tundra, alternating with extensive stone placers with almost no vegetation. In more humid areas, subalpine shrubs and meadows are developed, in some places tall grasses. Red and black currants, blueberries, lingonberries, wild strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries grow from berries in river valleys.

(view of the Eastern Sayan and Topographers peak from the Cherbi pass)

The animal world is as rich as the plant world. There are numerous animal trails. In the taiga and mountains you can see deer, elk, musk deer, squirrel, chipmunk, hare. Of the birds, the most numerous are the nutcracker, the jay, and the woodpecker, crossbill, scura, capercaillie, partridge, hazel grouse are often heard. Siberian grayling, lenok, a lot of taimen are found in the rivers. Typical representatives of bloodsucking - mosquitoes, midges, gadflies - are not numerous here, and they are not in well-blown river valleys. The Sayan rivers have a mixed snow-rain supply and are available for rafting from June to September. All rivers belong to the Yenisei basin. The sources of the Yenisei are the mountain rivers Big Yenisei (Biy-Khem) and Small Yenisei (Ka-Khem). Biy-Khem is considered the main source of the Yenisei. It starts in the eastern Sayan, not far from the topographers peak.

(view of the Sayans from the Okinsky plateau)

The river is very beautiful and passes through almost uninhabited places in Eastern Siberia. Its length is 600 km. The second source of the Yenisei - Ka-Khem has a length of about 500 km, and originates in the territory of Mongolia. The taiga landscape, the abundance of mountain streams, waterfalls, lakes and places of striking beauty, almost untouched wildlife, the relative simplicity of tourist routes - these reasons attract the attention of an increasing number of outdoor enthusiasts to the Sayans. There are two unique wildlife reserves in the Sayans: Sayano-Shushensky in the Western and Stolby in the Eastern Sayan.

(views from Cherbi pass)

With the onset of heat excursion tours The summer tourist season opens and ends in September. For outdoor enthusiasts, this period is somewhat shorter - only during the three summer months.

For a tourist, Sayan is the promised land: deep rivers rich in valuable fish; necklaces of the most beautiful lakes surrounded by primeval taiga or impregnable rocks; forests full of beast and bird; lush flowering of alpine meadows; glitter and roar of river waterfalls, stone rivers- kurums; huge mushroom fields and berry fields. An unusual place - Sayany.

(mountain lake at the entrance to the Valley of the Volcanoes)

Mighty rivers, taiga, mountain barriers and harsh conditions for survival - what real tourists need. So, since the 50s of the last century, tourism in the Sayans has been progressing very actively.

This is what makes the Sayans unique: the richness of history and legends, the beauty of impregnable mountains and stormy rivers, purity and transparency of pearl lakes, diversity of animal and flora. With joy they share everything with the travelers who come to them, giving them Knowledge, Beauty, Longevity and Health.

(summer evening in the Valley of the Volcanoes

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

Rogalsky V. I. Tourist routes in the Sayans

http://www.rusadventures.ru/

Wikipedia site.

The Siberian mountains of the Sayans are the habitat of the rarest snow leopard - the irbis and the area of ​​extraction of valuable minerals. A remote and sparsely inhabited mountainous country - a taiga and snowy kingdom, part of the "great triangle" Altai-Sayan-Baikal. Bizarre rock formations, especially the Krasnoyarsk Stone Pillars, gave rise to many legends. These slopes are a distant blue dream of climbers and climbers.

THE MOUNTAINS OF THE SAYAN TRIBE

The Sayan Mountains are named after the Turkic-speaking tribe of the Sayans (Soyons), who lived in the upper reaches of the Yenisei. Mixing with other Turkic tribes, the Sayan tribe became part of the Tuvan people.

The Sayans are a mountainous country in Siberia. Written documents and maps of the 17th century. indicate that initially only one object was known, named after the Sayan - a small ridge Sayansky Kamen (currently - the Sayansky ridge). Later, the name Sayan spread to the entire mountainous country from Altai to the Baikal region and is now subdivided into the Western Sayan and Eastern Sayan, which are surrounded by basins: Minusinsk, Tuvinskaya, Todzhinskaya and Tunkinskaya.

Arched-blocky Sayans are included in the largest and most typical belt of intracontinental (eniplatform) orogeny - Central Asian, including mountain structures of the Hindu Kush, Tien Shan, Pamir, Kunlun, Nanshan, Qinling, Altai, Sayan, Baikal, Transbaikalia, Stanovoy Range, which were formed on mature continental crust after a long period of relative tectonic quiescence. In the case of the Sayan Mountains, we can talk about one of the oldest geological materials on the territory of Russia, about Late Proterozoic - Early Paleozoic rocks, and igneous granitoids (manifestations of alkaline-basalt volcanism in the Eastern Sayan Mountains). Neither in height nor in size are the mountains of the “secondary orogen” inferior to the young, primary orogens of the Alps and others.

In many areas, the Sayan peaks are covered with glaciers. There are 190 known glaciers in the highest massifs of the Eastern Sayan with total area about 30 km2. A significant part of the peaks is occupied by snowfields: immobile accumulations of snow in gorges and depressions, protected from wind and sun. Ridges covered with snowfields create a system of "white mountains", the most famous are Maiskoye and Kanskoye. Many snowfields persist throughout the summer, for which they are nicknamed "flights". Snow melting all year round on the tops of the Sayan Mountains was nicknamed "squirrels".

The highest peak of the Western Sayan is Kyzyl-Taiga, sacred to the Tuvans: at its foot, the locals bury their shamans. The name of the mountain, translated from Tuvan, means “red mountain covered with forest”. Munku-Sardyk is the highest point of the Eastern Sayan, and its name in Buryat means "eternal char". In Siberia, treeless mountain peaks have long been called loaches. Munku-Sardy is located on the border of Russia (Republic of Buryatia) and Mongolia. The first ascent to the summit was made in 1858 by Gustav Radde (1831-1903) - Russian geographer and naturalist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

The Sayan rivers are rapids, possessing large reserves of hydropower, flow in swampy valleys formed by glaciers, and belong to the Yenisei basin. Lakes of glacial origin are rich in fish, mainly Siberian grayling.

The main obstacle to development Agriculture and development of the Sayan valley territory - permafrost thickness. Mountain taiga prevails on the slopes of the Sayans, turning into subalpine and alpine meadows, and even higher - into mountain tundra.

The Western Sayan is a system of ridges elongated to the northeast, separated by river valleys. The Eastern Sayan is located almost at right angles to the Western, from the left bank of the Yenisei River in a southeast direction - almost to the southern tip of Lake Baikal.

ROCKS OF THE IRBIS

Irbis - a two-meter cat - still lives in the Sayan gorges, although its population is endangered.

More than half of the Sayan area is occupied by mountain taiga landscapes with dark coniferous spruce-cedar-fir or light larch-cedar forests. The tops and slopes of the mountains are rocky tundra with kurums - stone streams originating on the tops of the mountains.

They live in the Sayans Brown bear, deer, musk deer, wolverine, sable, lynx and the irbis listed in the Red Book, also known as Snow Leopard. Reindeer graze in the mountain tundra.

To protect the nature of the Sayans, two wildlife reserves have been created: Sayano-Shushensky in the Western Sayan and Stolby in the Eastern. The Sayano-Shushensky Reserve is located in the center of the Western Sayan on both sides of the Main Sayan Range. The purpose of its creation was to protect the sable as the most valuable fur-bearing animal.

The Stolby Reserve was founded on the initiative of the inhabitants of Krasnoyarsk to preserve the "pillars" - rocks of volcanic origin.

People mastered the Sayan intermountains about 35-40 thousand years ago: from those times there were stone tools found at primitive sites, for example, in the area of ​​Mount Afontova. Later here for the first time tamed reindeer. The ancestors of the indigenous inhabitants of the Sayan received iron and copper, traded with all of Asia.

Excavations in the Western Sayan and finds of monuments of the Uyuk culture in the Valley of the Kings near the Uyuk River - mass graves of people and horses in the mounds of Arzhaan-1 (dated to IX-VIII centuries BC) and Arzhaan-2 (intact burial VI-V centuries BC of the Scythian leader and his wife, where about 20 kg of gold objects and jewelry in the Scythian-Siberian animal style were found), turned the idea of ​​​​the level of development of art and crafts of the ancient Scythians. A collection of gold items restored in the workshops of the Hermitage (there are more than a thousand of them, and they are exhibited at temporary exhibitions in the best museums in the world) is stored in the museum of the city of Kyzyl - the capital of the Republic of Tyva.

The Russians learned about the existence of the Sayans in 1615 from the documents of the expedition of the tsar's ambassadors in Tuva. Fifty years later, along the banks of the Sayan rivers - the only transport route in those wild places, the construction of ostrogs (fortified settlements) began. Nevertheless, these lands were settled slowly - due to the harsh climate.

Subsequently, there were two waves of mass resettlement of Russians in these places: the first - after the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the second - during the Stolypin agrarian reform, which began in 1906. Lands suitable for arable farming - the usual occupation of Russian peasants, were quickly mastered . Because of them, conflicts with the indigenous population often arose.

In Soviet times, several highways were laid in the Sayan basins to ensure the operation of iron ore and gold mines, but the Sayan mountains still remain a sparsely populated territory. The most remote and uninhabited region of the Sayan is Tofalaria. Tofalars, or Tofs, live here - one of the smallest peoples of Russia: their number barely exceeds 700 people.

The Sayan population lives mainly along rivers and roads, serving tourists and climbers.

In the Abakan-Minusinsk basin, many archaeological sites have been preserved. In the Eastern Sayan there are a large number of waterfalls. In the Western Sayan - natural Park Ergaki, among the rocks processed by the glacier.

Here you can often see "obo" - a structure made of stones and branches, where local residents ask the gods for good luck and leave tribute to them. The epic legend about the bogatyr Geser has reached our days - in different versions of the peoples inhabiting the Sayans. Geser cleared the land of monsters and established peace. His warriors turned to stone and turned into the Sayan mountains, and Geser lives on the top of the highest Sayan mountain - Munku-Sardyk, which is his throne.

CURIOUS FACTS

■ Back in the 19th century. in the Krasnoyarsk Pillars, a social movement was born, called "stolbism": people from all over Russia came here to conquer the pointed rocks and get to know each other. Difficult to climb rocks have contributed to the creation of an outstanding school of world-class rock climbers and mountaineers. Currently, Stolby is visited annually by more than 200 thousand people.

■ Hanging Stone Rock - one of the main attractions of the Erga-ki reserve. This is a huge stone, which, incomprehensibly, hung on the edge of a cliff into Rainbow Lake. In fact, the stone is held firmly and all attempts to push it manually with the force of 30-40 people were unsuccessful.

■ Near Irkutsk there is a Nilova hermitage (in honor of the archbishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk Nil of Irkutsk (Nikolai Fedorovich Isakovich (1799-1874)), who wished to establish a hermitage here, while on Seliger there is a hermitage in honor of St. Nil Stolbensky). is a hot spring resort healing properties were explored in 1840 by order of the governor, who donated these lands to Archbishop Nil in 1845. Vladyka Nil organized a service here in the Buryat language. The archbishop was interested in Buddhism, ethnography, geology, and painting. His Eminence went to Shumak more than once. He collected the richest collection of minerals, which is now stored in the mineralogical museum of St. Petersburg University. The Decembrists, who were exiled in Siberia, came to the springs.

■ Located at the foot of the mountains, the Minusinsk Basin was nicknamed Siberian Italy for its unique warm and even hot climate for these places, as well as dry summers, which makes it possible to grow fruits and even melons here.

■ The Kropotkin and Peretolchin volcanoes are large young extinct volcanoes in the Khi-Gol Pad in the territory of the Republic of Buryatia. The diameter of the craters is about 200 m, the height above the lava field is about 120 m.

■ In the Sayans, on the Yenisei River, the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station was built, the largest in Russia and the sixth among the currently operating hydroelectric power stations in the world. The construction of the HPP was started in 1963 and completed in 1985.

ATTRACTION

■ Natural: Turan hot springs - balneological resort "Nilova Pustyn" (Eastern Sayan), "Stone City" (Western Sayan), Mount Kyzyl-Taiga (Western Sayan), mountain and glaciers Munku-Sardyk (Eastern Sayan), Minusinskaya hollow, Maiskoye and Kanskoye Belogorye, the rocky ridge Sleeping Sayan (Western Sayan), the Bolshoy Yenisei River, the Tunkinsky Goltsy mountain range (Eastern Sayan), waterfalls Khamsarinsky, Dototsky, Udinsky, Biy-Khemsky, canyons Big Kishty and Dotota, tarn lakes Medvezhie, Lower Suruntsinskoye, Dozor-Hyp, Shuthulai-Nur and Kara-Balyk, Peretolchin and Kropotkin volcanoes, Hanging Stone rock (Western Sayan), Badzheiskaya, Kubinskaya and Oreshskaya caves.
■ Reserves and natural parks: Ergaki Nature Park (Western Sayan), Sayano-Shushensky Reserve (Western Sayan), Stolby Reserve (Krasnoyarsk).
■ Archaeological: Paleolithic site near Mount Afontova (Krasnoyarsk), Scythian burial mounds near the village of Arzhaan (Western Sayan).
■ Ethnographic: Tofalaria (Central Sayan) - the area of ​​​​residence of the small people of Tofalars, or Tofs.
■ Industrial: Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP.

Atlas. The whole world is in your hands #159

The Sayans are a mountainous country in Siberia. Written documents and maps of the 17th century. indicate that initially only one object was known, named after the Sayan - a small ridge Sayansky Kamen (currently - the Sayansky ridge). Later, the name Sayan spread to the entire mountainous country from Altai to the Baikal region and is now subdivided into the Western Sayan and Eastern Sayan, which are surrounded by basins: Minusinsk, Tuvinskaya, Todzhinskaya and Tunkinskaya.

The Western Sayan is a system of ridges elongated to the northeast, separated by river valleys. The Eastern Sayan is located almost at right angles to the Western, from the left bank of the river in a southeast direction - almost to the southern tip of the lake.
Arched-blocky Sayans are included in the largest and most typical belt of intracontinental (eniplatform) orogeny - Central Asian, which includes mountain structures of the Hindu Kush, Pamir, Kunlun, Nanshan, Qinling, Altai, Sayan, Baikal, Transbaikalia, Stanovoy Range, which were formed on the mature continental crust after a long period of relative tectonic quiescence. In the case of the Sayan Mountains, we can talk about one of the oldest geological materials on the territory of Russia, about Late Proterozoic - Early Paleozoic rocks, and igneous granitoids (manifestations of alkaline-basalt volcanism in the Eastern Sayan Mountains). Neither in height nor in size are the mountains of the “secondary orogen” inferior to the young, primary orogens of the Alps and others.
In many areas, the Sayan peaks are covered with glaciers. In the highest massifs of the Eastern Sayan, 190 glaciers with a total area of ​​about 30 km 2 are known. A significant part of the peaks is occupied by snowfields: immobile accumulations of snow in gorges and depressions, protected from wind and sun. Ridges covered with snowfields create a system of "white mountains", the most famous are Manskoye and Kanskoye. Many snowfields persist throughout the summer, for which they are nicknamed "flights". Snow melting all year round on the tops of the Sayan Mountains was nicknamed "squirrels".
The highest peak of the Western Sayan is Kyzyl-Taiga, sacred to the Tuvans: at its foot, the locals bury their shamans. The name of the mountain, translated from Tuvan, means “red mountain covered with forest”. Munku-Sardyk is the highest point of the Eastern Sayan, and its name in Buryat means "eternal char". In Siberia, treeless mountain peaks have long been called loaches. Munku-Sardy is located on the border of Russia (Republic of Buryatia) and Mongolia. The first ascent to the summit was made in 1858 by Gustav Radtse (1831-1903) - Russian geographer and naturalist, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences.

Nature

The Sayan rivers are rapids, possessing large reserves of hydropower, flow in swampy valleys formed by glaciers, and belong to the Yenisei basin. Lakes of glacial origin are rich in fish, mainly Siberian grayling.
The main obstacle to the development of agriculture and the development of the Sayan valley territory is the thickness of permafrost. Mountain taiga prevails on the slopes of the Sayans, turning into subalpine and alpine meadows, and even higher - into mountain tundra.
Irbis - a two-meter cat - still lives in the Sayan gorges, although its population is endangered.
More than half of the Sayan area is occupied by mountain taiga landscapes with dark coniferous spruce-cedar-fir or light larch-cedar forests. The tops and slopes of the mountains are rocky tundra with kurums - stone streams originating on the tops of the mountains.
The brown bear, deer, musk deer, wolverine, sable, lynx and the irbis, also known as the snow leopard, are found in the Sayan Mountains. Reindeer graze in the mountain tundra.
To protect the nature of the Sayans, two wildlife reserves have been created: Sayano-Shushensky in the Western Sayan and Stolby in the Eastern. The Sayano-Shushensky Reserve is located in the center of the Western Sayan on both sides of the Main Sayan Range. The purpose of its creation was to protect the sable as the most valuable fur-bearing animal.
was founded on the initiative of the inhabitants of Krasnoyarsk to preserve the "pillars" - rocks of volcanic origin.

Story

People mastered the Sayan intermountains about 35-40 thousand years ago: from those times there were stone tools found at primitive sites, for example, in the area of ​​Mount Afontova. Later, the reindeer was tamed here for the first time. The ancestors of the indigenous inhabitants of the Sayan received iron and copper, traded with all of Asia.
Excavations in the Western Sayan and finds of monuments of the Uyuk culture in the Valley of the Kings near the Uyuk River - mass graves of people and horses in the mounds of Arzhaan-1 (dated to IX-VIII centuries BC) and Arzhaan-2 (intact burial VI-V centuries BC of the Scythian leader and his wife, where about 20 kg of gold objects and jewelry in the Scythian-Siberian animal style were found), turned the idea of ​​​​the level of development of art and crafts of the ancient Scythians. A collection of gold objects restored in the workshops of the Hermitage (there are more than a thousand of them, and they are exhibited at temporary exhibitions in the best museums in the world) is stored in the museum of the city of Kyzyl, the capital of the Republic of Tuva.
The Russians learned about the existence of the Sayans in 1615 from the documents of the expedition of the tsarist ambassadors in Tuva. Fifty years later, along the banks of the Sayan rivers - the only transport route in those wild places - the construction of ostrogs (fortified settlements) began. Nevertheless, these lands were settled slowly - due to the harsh climate.
Subsequently, there were two waves of mass resettlement of Russians in these places: the first - after the abolition of serfdom in 1861, the second - during the Stolypin agrarian reform, which began in 1906. Lands suitable for arable farming - the usual occupation of Russian peasants, were quickly mastered . Because of them, conflicts with the indigenous population often arose.
In Soviet times, several highways were laid in the Sayan basins to ensure the operation of iron ore and gold mines, but the Sayan mountains still remain a sparsely populated territory. The most remote and uninhabited region of the Sayan is Tofalaria. Tofalars, or Tofs, live here - one of the smallest peoples of Russia: their number barely exceeds 700 people.
The Sayan population lives mainly along rivers and roads, serving tourists and climbers.
In the Abakan-Minusinsk basin, many archaeological sites have been preserved. In the Eastern Sayan there are a large number of waterfalls. In the Western Sayan - natural park Ergaki, among the rocks processed by the glacier.
Here you can often see "obo" - a structure made of stones and branches, where local residents ask the gods for good luck and leave tribute to them. The epic legend about the bogatyr Geser has reached our days - in different versions of the peoples inhabiting the Sayans. Geser cleared the land of monsters and established peace. His warriors turned to stone and turned into the Sayan mountains, and Geser lives on the top of the highest Sayan mountain - Munku-Sardyk, which is his throne.

general information

Location: Southern Siberia, west of Lake Baikal.

Administrative affiliation: Western Sayan - the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the north of the Republic of Tyva; Eastern Sayan - the south of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Irkutsk Region, the west of the Republic of Buryatia, the northeast of the Republic of Tyva.

The largest rivers of the Western Sayan: Khemchik, Big Urs, Naked, Pashkina, Golovan, Kantegir, Joy, Abakan, Us, Kazyrsug, Berezovaya, Shush, Oya, Tuva with Amyl and Kazyr.
The largest rivers of the Eastern Sayan: Big Yenisei, Kizir, Kazyr, Uda, Kham-Syr, Syda, Sisim, Mana, Kan, Agul, Tuba, Biryusa, Uda, Oka, Irkut.

Major lakes: Todzha, Many-Khol, Kadysh-Khol, Kara-Khol, Bedui (Taymennoye), Pazyrym, Argadan and Buiba, Black, Oyskoye, Tulber-Khol.

Major airport: Yemelyanovo International Airport (Krasnoyarsk).

Numbers

Area: about 250,000 km2.

Length: Western Sayan - 650 km, Eastern Sayan - about 1000 km.

Population density: less than 1 person / km 2.

Highest Peaks: Western Sayan - Mount Kyzyl-Taiga (3122 m), Eastern Sayan - Mount Munku-Sardyk (3491 m).

Climate and weather

sharply continental. Altitudinal zonation.
Long and Cold winter, short and cool summer.
January average temperature:- 25°C in the mountains, -30°C in the intermountain basins.

July average temperature:+ 12°С in the mountains, +20°С in the intermountain basins.

Average annual rainfall: 300-350 mm in intermountain basins, 400-500 mm in the foothills and on the southern slopes of the mountains, 1000-1200 mm on the northern slopes of the mountains.

Relative humidity: 70%.

Economy

The Sayan Territorial Production Complex was created on the basis of mineral and hydropower resources. Mining iron ore is carried out at the Abakanskoye, Irbinskoye fields and the fields of the Krasnokamensk group.

Minerals: Western Sayan - iron, copper, molybdenum, tungsten ores, gold, asbestos; Eastern Sayan - iron, titanium, aluminum, lead-zinc ores, gold, rare and rare earth metals, mica, phosphorites, magnesites, graphite.

Hydropower: Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP.

Attractions

■ Natural: Turan hot springs - balneological resort "Nilova Pustyn" (Eastern Sayan), "Stone City" (Western Sayan), Mount Kyzyl-Taiga (Western Sayan), mountain and glaciers Munku-Sardyk (Eastern Sayan), Minusinsk basin, Manskoe and Kanskoe Belogorye, the rocky ridge of the Sleeping Sayan (Western Sayan), the Big Yenisei River, the Tunkinsky Goltsy mountain range (Eastern Sayan), the Khamsarinsky, Dototsky, Udinsky, Biy-Khemsky waterfalls, Bolshie Kishty and Dotota canyons, Medvezhye and Lower Suruntsinskoe tarn lakes , Dozor-Hyp, Shuthulai-Nur and Kara-Balyk, Peretolchin and Kropotkin volcanoes, Hanging Stone rock (Western Sayan), Badzheiskaya, Kubinskaya and Oreshskaya caves.
■ Reserves and natural parks: Ergaki Natural Park (Western Sayan), Sayano-Shushensky Reserve (Western Sayan), Stolby Reserve (Krasnoyarsk).
■ archaeological: Paleolithic site near Mount Afontova (Krasnoyarsk), Scythian burial mounds near the village of Arzhaan (Western Sayan).
■ Ethnographic: Tofalaria (Central Sayan) - the area of ​​\u200b\u200bresidence of the small people of Tofalars, or Tofs.
■ Industrial: Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP.

Curious facts

■ Located at the foot of the mountains, the Minusinsk Basin was nicknamed Siberian Italy - for its uniquely warm and even hot climate for these places, as well as dry summers, which makes it possible to grow fruits and even melons here.
■ The Kropotkin and Peretolchin volcanoes are large young extinct volcanoes in the Khi-Gol Pad in the territory of the Republic of Buryatia. The diameter of the craters is about 200 m, the height above the lava field is about 120 m.
■ In the Sayans, on the Yenisei River, the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station was built, the largest in Russia and the sixth among the currently operating hydroelectric power stations in the world. The construction of the HPP was started in 1963 and completed in 1985.

■ Back in the 19th century. in the Krasnoyarsk Pillars, a social movement was born, called "stolbism": people from all over Russia came here to conquer the pointed rocks and get to know each other. Difficult to climb rocks have contributed to the creation of an outstanding school of world-class rock climbers and mountaineers. Currently, Stolby is visited annually by more than 200 thousand people.
■ Rock Hanging Stone - one of the main attractions of the Ergaki reserve. This is a huge stone, which, incomprehensibly, hung on the edge of a cliff into Rainbow Lake. In fact, the stone is held firmly and all attempts to push it manually with the force of 30-40 people were unsuccessful.
■ Near Irkutsk there is its own Nilova hermitage (in honor of the archbishop of Irkutsk and Nerchinsk Nil of Irkutsk (Nikolai Fedorovich Isakovich (1799-1874)), who wished to establish a hermitage here, while on Seliger there is a hermitage in honor of St. Nil Stolbensky). Now it is a resort on hot springs, whose healing properties were investigated in 1840 by order of the governor, who donated these lands to Archbishop Nil in 1845. Vladyka Nil organized a service here in the Buryat language.The archbishop was interested in Buddhism, ethnography, geology, and painting. His Eminence went to Shumak more than once and collected the richest collection of minerals, which is now stored in the mineralogical museum of St. Petersburg University.