Long gone are the days when the whole planet was one big nature reserve. Mankind has done a good job and redraw the Earth in its own way, adjusting it for itself. And the farther, the more valuable are untouched, pristine corners for us, where for many thousands of years nothing has changed ...
Famous Reserves of Russia: List
Fortunately, many such corners have remained on the territory of the Russian Federation. They attract the attention of tourists and are carefully guarded by the state. There are hundreds of them, and each is unique in its own way. The most famous reserves of Russia:
- Barguzinsky State Biosphere Reserve - occupies the entire northeastern shore of Lake Baikal, as well as the central part of the Barguzinsky Range. The purpose of its creation: the conservation of fur-bearing representatives of the fauna.
- Ussuri Nature Reserve - located in the Primorsky Territory. The goal is to preserve coniferous and broad-leaved trees.
- Large Arctic Nature Reserve - located on the islands in the Arctic Ocean and the Taimyr Peninsula. The goal is the conservation of rare bird species.
- The Pillars Preserve is located on the right bank of the Yenisei. The goal is to preserve rare species of flora and vertebrate animals.
- Baikal Reserve - located around Lake Baikal. The goal is the conservation of rare species of plants, animals, birds and fish.
- Altai Nature Reserve - located in the mountains of the same name. The goal is to preserve a unique complex of lakes, wild mountain vegetation and a rare animal - the snow leopard.
- Geyser Valley - located in Kamchatka and is one of the seven wonders of Russia. The goal is to preserve geyser fields that have no analogues in Eurasia.
- Caucasian Reserve - located in the south and north of the Western Caucasus. The goal is to preserve the rarest animals: tours and bison.
- Sayano-Shushensky Reserve - located in the southern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in the Yenisei River basin. The goal is to preserve cedar trees and the snow leopard.
- Far Eastern Marine Reserve - located in the Bay of the Sea of Japan. The goal is to preserve rare marine and coastal flora and fauna.
The Ubsunur Basin Nature Reserve is the pearl of Russia
It is about this place that we will discuss in our article. The names of the reserves from the above list are mostly familiar to Russians and not only. These places are popular tourist sites, and many tourists had the good fortune to visit them.
Things are somewhat different with the Ubsunur depression located on the very border of the Republic of Tuva (Russia) and the Mongolian People’s Republic. This reserve is a real pearl of the planet, a place of the rarest beauty, only not everyone can get to it. After all, the “shell” of mountain ranges reliably hides the hollow from prying eyes ... But only one who managed to get here can say that he saw everything in life!
Basin Description
Ubsunur hollow shock even experienced travelers. Its versatility just does not fit into the head. The blinding sun, the endless blue overhead, the sand dune, which covered the lake with a golden ring. On the shore of the lake - lush reeds. Around the desert - wormwood steppes, and above - mountains with alpine meadows and forests. Crystal rivers flow down from above. The ridges close the space, and to the person below, it seems that he has fallen into some sort of magic jewelry box.
The uniqueness of the reserve
The Ubsunur Basin reserve is truly unique. Every sane person will probably ask himself a question: how can mountains and steppes, deserts, and lakes be in one place ?! But that is the uniqueness of the Ubsunur depression, that it combines many different ecosystems and is a "collection" of almost all natural zones of temperate climate. Here, they adjoin each other: sandy and clay deserts, dry and tall grass steppes, forest-steppe, deciduous and cedar forests, dry and swampy char and tundra.
And all this "landscape parade", this whole model of the globe - in a relatively small area!
Geographic characteristics
The Ubsunur Basin nature reserve lurks in the very heart of the Asian continent. The bowl, surrounded by mountains, stretched 600 kilometers in length and 150 in width. On its bottom (in the western part) there is a rather large (80 by 70 kilometers) lake Ubsu-Nur, which probably gave the name to the basin. Scientists say that once it was a piece of the sea. The water in the lake to this day remains salty, despite the fact that all the mountain rivers of the basin flow into Ubsu-Nur.
From different sides from the outside world the reserve is fenced off by the Sangilen plateau, the East and West Tannu-Ola ranges, Bulnay-Nuru, and Khan-Khuhei. Tsagan-Shibetu, massifs of Turgen-Ula and Kharkhir.
The deserts located in the basin are the northernmost in Eurasia, and the “oasis” of permafrost is considered the southernmost on the planet in the conditions of plains.
Past Basin
Today, the Ubsunur Basin is the Republic of Tyva, and once upon a time it became the battlefield of nomadic peoples who won a place for themselves under the sun. Huns, Scythians, Mongols, Turks and other legendary, long gone into oblivion, tribes passed here. They all left a memory in the form of burial grounds, barrows and ritual stones, which harmoniously fit into the local landscape and are of great historical value.
And in times of peace, peoples lingering at the bottom of the hollow grazed sheep in the steppes and meadows, built yurts, and the smoke of bonfires rose into the bottomless sky ... Even thousands of years ago, in hoary antiquity, a typical Central Asian climate prevailed here, which has survived to this day.
A place shrouded in legends
The inaccessible location of the Ubsunur depression makes it mysterious and mysterious even in the eyes of people living very close by. At all times, they added legends, parables and myths about this unique corner. One of the most interesting legends that the Republic of Tuva can boast is the legend of a naive camel. The main character of the work loaned his magnificent tail to his horse so that he could drive away annoying insects. Deer - chic horns for the duration of the wedding ceremony ... And so on. And the poor stands on the top of the mountain, looking for his debtors in the forest or in the steppe ... But their trace has caught a cold. And no one is going to give anything to a gullible beast.
Fauna of the Ubsunur Basin
Not for nothing, in one of the most popular legends associated with this place, it is about animals that are told. The Ubsunur Basin Reserve is a unique place with an unforgettable nature. The fauna is richest here! Ubsu-Nur Lake is home to fish called Altai Ottoman. This species is not found anywhere else in the world! And around the lake - reed beds, and in them - a huge number of birds, many of which are listed in the Red Book.
On the plains, among the ancient mounds, you can often find wild camels. Gophers, haylords, tarbagans and other rodents live in the steppe. Bears and deer roam the forests. And the biggest asset of the Ubsunur depression and the entire Republic of Tuva is the snow leopard and musk deer. They are trying to save the rarest animals that have been threatened with extinction for centuries now.
History of the reserve
The unique natural characteristics of the Ubsunur depression make this place extremely attractive in the eyes of scientists. Still would! After all, you can study different types of landscapes and ecosystems without having to overcome thousands of kilometers and without wasting valuable time! Only the Republic of Tuva, the nature of which is so diverse, will answer many questions. In Russia there are very few such places.
The Russians set a goal to create a state biosphere reserve here a long time ago - back in the eighties of the last century. True, at first the project of an international reserve was considered - the common brainchild of Russia (then the USSR) and Mongolia. But the lack of a legal framework for objects of this status put an end to the dream.
And then the Russian side in 1993 created the Ubsunur Basin reserve, which is under the auspices of UNESCO. And the Mongols did exactly the same job, creating the Ubsunur Basin reserve a year later. Formally, the object is divided between two states, and in fact it is a single organism, with a common flora, fauna and ecosystem.
Symbols of the Ubsunur Basin Reserve
The names of the reserves are a common, mandatory attribute that everyone has. But not everyone has symbolism. The reserve, located in the Ubsunur Basin, boasts its own flag, pennant and emblem!
The flag features blue, green and blue stripes (water, earth and sky), as well as scarlet rays symbolizing the sun. The emblem of the reserve speaks of infinity - it is round, with the corresponding symbol inside. From the icon of the source of life, "yin" and "yang", colored stripes diverge in different directions. Each of them is responsible for a specific landscape. Brown-yellow - for the desert and the steppe; green - for the taiga; violet-blue - beyond the tundra, etc. The pennant depicts an emblem, inscriptions, and also a figure of a deer - a deer with chic horns.