Torino - Minsk
One of the cool natural breath-taking places in Russia are the “Lena’s stone forest” or “Lena’s Stone Pillars”.
Many spend a lot just to get there and to take a look. This place is where the virgin Siberian woods stand untouched and the only way to get there is to take a four day journey from Moscow city. First, you have to take a flight so long that if you flew opposite direction you could easily come to New York, so far from Moscow that is, but that’s still Russia. The average price for such flight is around $800 by Russian airlines, and as you might guessed there are no foreign competitors on those routes. Then upon the arrival to Yakutia region, the land from where the significant part of world’s diamonds production originate from. Then from there the only way to go to this place is by a boat. Armed native individuals can offer you a “cheap” $500 trip on a small boat, so in three days you can be on spot. They can show you the fields of wild hemp flower around which, as some tourists say, often can be picked up by your guide while you are exploring the stone forest, and then boiled together with some milk to meet you when you are back in camp with some mind blowing mixture. And they are all armed there, those natives. Also you can take bit larger river boat that are run by some local companies and go with more comfort up the river. Of course, then there are no armed natives or botanical exploration.
Also this one can be see on google maps to get an idea where the heck it is.
Status of Property: Nature Park
Area: 0.485 million ha
Situation: Inscribed on the Russian Tentative List
The following organizations took part in preparation of the nomination: Institute of Biological Problems of Cryolitozone of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SB RSA), Yakutsk State University, Institute of Diamonds and Noble Metal Geology of the SB RSA, The Lena Pillars Nature Park, Geography Institute of the RSA, the Likhachev Cultural and Natural Heritage Institute, NABU and the Natural Heritage Protection Fund
Geological texture of Lena Pillars contains outstanding evidences of the Earth and its living population development history. Numerous fossils of ancient organisms found here are unique preserved evidences of a very important stage in the history of the organic world and a biodiversity "boom", that occurred in lower Cambrian epoch. Also in Lena Pillars area the fossils of mammoth fauna representatives were found: mammoth (Mammulhus primigenius Blum), bison (Bison priscus Boj), fleecy rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiguibatis Blum), Lena horse (Eggus lenensis Russ), Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L).
On the territory of the Park there is a wide diversity of frozen ground relief (frozen ground karsts, silt pinnacles, bulgunnyakhs, up-warping knobs, polygonal-veined ices). On the right bank of Lena one can see small areas of fluttering sands - "tukulans"; it's a unique landscape with some elements of a cold northern sandy desert.
In general, there are 464 species, 276 genera and 81 families of vascular plants. It's the only area in the world where the endemic inhabitant Redowskia sophiifolia can be met. Besides, in the area of Lena Pillars one can meet 12 more Red Book species.
Area is characterized by a specific combination of fauna complexes. Together with dominating forest elements, the representatives of mountain-taiga (Siberian musk deer, red deer) and mountain-steppe (brown creeper) complexes are met here. There are 42 species of mammals in the Park. The fauna of breeding birds is represented by 99 species, 27 species are included in the Red Books of different levels. Bewick's swan, peregrine falcon, gyrfalcon, white-tailed eagle, golden eagle, osprey and sterkh are included in the Supplement to the CITES Convention, they also are protected species of the world avifauna.
Lena Pillars are extremely beautiful; their aesthetic influence on people has no comparison throughout a huge territory of Eurasian North-East. Fantastic stone statues, resembling strange-shaped pillars, spires, bayed towers, crossings and caves, stretch along the rivers' banks for tens of kilometers.
[img]http://www.nhpfund.ru/files/lena-pillars-nature-park-nomination-ru.pdf
Milano
Castelfranco Emilia
savoia
