If you are suddenly asked to describe the relief of Belarus, what will you recall first of all? If you are not a Belarusian citizen, you are unlikely to think about any significant differences in elevation on the map. And not without reason: most of the country’s territory is flat, and only in the center is a low Belorussian ridge (Belarusskaya grad) - a chain of hills with a maximum height of about 300 meters. However, in the geography of any country in the world, special attention is paid to the highest and lowest point on the surface. These locations are marked on the map at least for statistics. Consider where these points are on the map of Belarus.
Mount Dzerzhinskaya: the highest point in Belarus
It is to the aforementioned Belorussian ridge that the maximum height in this country refers - 345-meter mountain Dzerzhinsky. Technically, it is rather a hill, not a mountain. In addition, this object has a very wide base and no less wide and flat top, which further confuses tourists who nevertheless reached the highest point in Belarus.
At the word "mountain", and even the highest, the imagination draws a long and energy-intensive climb to the top, from where an amazing view opens up, for which it was worth so much effort. Imagine the disappointment of travelers who reach the highest point in Belarus above sea level and find a walled meadow surrounded by a forest instead of 360 degrees. The only reminder of the significance of this place is an artificial embankment on which a memorial sign is mounted.
Once this mountain was called Holy, but in the days of the USSR, and more precisely, in 1958, the name was changed to be more suitable for the regime. The legacy of the past reminds of past days - the structure of the collective farm near the highest point in Belarus.
How to get to Dzerzhinskaya mountain?
The highest point in Belarus is located very close to Minsk, in the village of Skirmantovo. If you are driving your own car, then you need to get to the P65 highway, and from it turn onto Skirmantovo. If you get from Minsk by public transport, you will need to take a suburban bus and go to the Skirmantovo-1 stop.
Unofficial versions
Even if you already remember what the highest point in Belarus is, you still cannot be sure that you know everything about it. So far, controversy has not calmed down points around the location. The mark itself is unequivocally located on the area near Dzerzhinsky Mountain, but, for example, military and topographic maps from the time of the USSR claim that the highest point is not where there is an embankment and a memorial sign, but in the courtyard of the aforementioned collective farm.
Another version says that the highest mountain in Belarus is located a little further north, near the village of Glushintsy. There is a military unit on whose territory there is a radar on a loose hill. This very hill, knowledgeable people say, is higher than Mount Dzerzhinskaya by 4-5 meters.
The lowest point in Belarus
If Mount Dzerzhinskaya is at least somehow marked and highlighted with a memorial sign in the surrounding landscape, then it will be very difficult to find a specific point with the opposite value. The lowest point on the surface of the country is the border of Belarus and Lithuania along the Neman River. The absolute height here is no more than 80 meters above the sea surface. Of course, compared to the seashore, this is quite high, but Belarus cannot boast of access to the sea.
In the north of Grodno, on the very border with Lithuania and, accordingly, on the banks of the Neman is the village of Privalka. On the other side is the Lithuanian village of Shvendoubre, and a little further on is the city of Druskininkai. It is on the stretch of river between Privalka and Shvendure that the lowest place in Belarus is located.
Not just a point on the map: legends of swamps
There is a legend that the name Privalka does not come from the word “halt”, but from “failure”. Allegedly, it was at this place that the city from the Lithuanian legends of Raigardas went underground. The essence of the legend is that once a prosperous city literally drowned in the waters of the Neman and disappeared forever. Only from time to time the river brings things to the surface from a sunken place, and a rumble is heard from under the ground - this is ringed by the underground inhabitants of the dead city.
What really happened to Raigardas? On the territory of the modern Raigardas Valley there really was a small fortress or a trading town - excavations in this territory have repeatedly confirmed this. Most likely, due to the fact that the terrain of this area is unstable, there was some unexpected natural disaster (for example, a flood that led to a landslide), which the town could not cope with.
The name of the city directly hints about a possible version. Unlike the popular translation into Russian, where Raigardas becomes a "paradise city", the syllable "paradise" originally means swamp or still water in a lowland, which indicates that the city was surrounded by a specific landscape, which clearly did not benefit him. And the ringing of bells from under the earth is already a typical attribute of any sinister legend.