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 endless snowy expanses of the Far North to the lush abundance of the coastal South. In a list of 20 items, we tried to select the most beautiful places in Russia and photos that would fully reflect her richness and diversity.
- The most beautiful places on the planet
- The most beautiful cities of the Russian Federation
20. Sikhote-Alin, Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai
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 subtropics caused a bizarre mixture of the animal and plant world of these belts, where the tiger shares space with a brown bear. And from the top of Lysaya Mountain, a fantastic view of the mountain range and the Sea of Japan opens.
In 1947, an iron meteorite fell in the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, received the same name as the area where it "landed." The total weight of all fragments of the space guest (and they were collected over 3500 pieces) amounted to 27 tons, and the place of its fall is still popular among scientists and tourists.
19. Great Zeygelan Falls, North Ossetia
For a long time only the locals 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 completely freezes, and a magnificent sight opens up to the tourist's eyes - a long strip of ice lace on a brown-black rock.
Although the height of this waterfall is less than that of the ten highest waterfalls in the world, in appearance it will give odds to most foreign ones.
18. Vasyugan marshes, Tomsk, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions
People who consider swamps ugly, obviously did not visit Vasyugan swamps. This is a huge space in Western Siberia, from where many rivers originate. The bird's eye view is simply amazing - a huge space dotted with many blue eye-lakes.
It’s a pity, it’s hard for a mere mortal to get there - in the summer the swamps are almost impassable.
17. Krasnoyarsk pillars, Krasnoyarsk Territory
Just a few kilometers from Krasnoyarsk is one of the most beautiful places in Siberia - the natural park "Pillars".
From the green, swaying sea of trees, solitary cliffs of gray-pink stone grow, like whales emerging from the surface of the water. Pillars are beautiful at any time of the year - both in summer and in winter, but, in our opinion, are especially good in autumn.
Surprisingly, all the rocks in the Pillars (and there are more than 100) have names, data for appearance or location. For example, there are rocks called “Lion's Gate”, “Monk”, “Grandfather”, “Bell Tower” and others.
The name is given to huge boulders, "scattered" in abundance on the territory of the Pillars. The most famous among them is the Elephant, in shape really resembling a reclining elephant. Novice climbers and just energetic teenagers train on it.
16. Avacha Bay, Kamchatka Peninsula
The sea gate of Russia, the Far Eastern non-freezing port, is distinguished by its still rare beauty. One of the main attractions of the bay is the three rocks at the entrance, the “three brothers” protecting their people from the tsunami.
The shores of the bay are very beautiful - gentle hills covered with dense forest, many secluded bays fenced with sand spits.
15. Plateau Manpupuner, Komi Republic
From the Mansi language, the name of the plateau is translated as "the mountain of stone idols." “Idols” are seven pillars, the last thing that has come down to our times from mountains with an antiquity of 200 million years.
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 no wonder that the ancient Mansi worshiped these stones as deities.
14. Tsei 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 not a problem.
One of the main attractions is the Skazsky glacier. It is dangerous to approach it, so you have to carefully admire the awesome gray-steel mass of ice and frayed rocks from afar.
13. Lake Ladoga, Karelia
This huge freshwater lake has been pleasing man with its beauty for more than one thousand years. Although the most famous place of Ladoga among tourists is the Valaam Islands, each rock, each cliff, each bay of the lake has no less charming beauty.
The confluence of Ladoga skerries, the Ruskeala marble quarries - all this is definitely worth a look at the confluence of the Svir River in Ladoga.
12. Ubsunur Basin, Republic of Tuva
As the name implies, this is indeed a hollow — a hollow bordered by gentle mountains. First of all, it is remarkable for the variety of its landscapes, and if at the bottom there is a salt lake surrounded by a sandy desert, then as it moves up, nature changes.
Steppes go higher, then forest-steppes, and even higher - dense cedar forests. And above them are the alpine tundra and glaciers.
11. Elton Lake, Volgograd Region
Bright white crystals of salt glistening in the sun, bordering the lake, are already visible from afar. The water in the lake is very salty - saltier than the Dead Sea, one and a half times.
The very surface of the water in summer has a slightly pinkish color, which contrasts beautifully with the blueness of the sky and the reddish shores covered with salt deposits.
10. Divnogorye, Voronezh region
One of the most beautiful places in Russia is snow-white chalky strata that come to the surface in the Voronezh region. They form bizarre forms, from mountains to even white surfaces, only slightly overgrown with grass, and even peculiar lattices and folds.
The sight is very unusual, especially against the background of the surrounding traditional Central Russian vegetation.
9. Blue Lakes, Kabardino-Balkaria
Its chain of five lakes located in the Cherek-Balkar Gorge is 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 is a peculiar bright blue color caused by the presence of hydrogen sulfide in the water.
8. Charsky Sands, Trans-Baikal Territory
The desert is where, in theory, there should not be any desert - this is what Charsky 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.
Surrealistic spectacle - sand, dunes, shreds of dry grass and almost immediately beyond the red sands rise snow-covered bluish-white mountains.
7. Patomsky crater, Irkutsk region
On the slope of one of the mountains of the Patom Highlands there is a large bluish-white cone with a diameter of 76 km on top. It can be seen from afar. The beauty of the crater lies in its foreignness, 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. Bolshoi Chulchinsky waterfall, Altai Republic
Mountain Altai is rich in picturesque waterfalls - from small ones, only a meter and a half high, to noisy cascades of water that can be heard for several kilometers. Chulchinsky waterfall - one of the strongest in Altai; he falls from a height of 160 meters.
A spectacle of fantastic beauty - between the forested mountain slopes, black-gray acute-angled stones, along which a stream flies white from foam, 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. Like the lake, the mountains are amazingly beautiful. Water of amazing transparency, many islands, white pebble beaches, and, of course, charming locals - Baikal seals.
Currently, water rich in nutrients from Lake Baikal is imported into the Celestial Empire, and there are persistent rumors that the Chinese intend to build a plant for bottling drinking water in the Slyudyansky district.
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 accessible for tourists, but there are enough of them to be fascinated by this magical place.
Icy stalactites and stalagmites, fancifully rugged ceiling blocks, many underground lakes, streams and grottoes, “organ pipes” above your head - all this creates a special, like nothing atmosphere.
3. Putorana Plateau, Krasnoyarsk Territory
The oldest plateau in the world of volcanic origin, as if descended from the pages of Conan Doyle's novel "The Lost World".
It is an impressive and severe sight - dark cliffs, from which, unable to cut its own path, many rivers and streams fall, forming the largest number of waterfalls in Russia. Because of their large number, the plateau received a beautiful unofficial name - “the land of ten thousand lakes and thousands of waterfalls”.
The plateau is home to numerous animals, from fox, lynx and sable to wolverine and snow sheep. And fish in local rivers and lakes are apparently invisible: omul and muksun and char, and many other species.
Here you can only get to all this splendor only with the help of a guide. Without it, there is a great chance to get lost in canyons and gorges of Putorana.
2. Curonian Spit
A unique natural monument is a spit made of sand washed by the sea, which separates 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 includes 290 species of vertebrate animals, 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 hardly numbering 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 the venture 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 large number of geysers, large and small, bursting from the crevices of the earth by stormy streams of water and steam. It even happens that entire mountain slopes seem to be covered with a white steam veil. The sight is bewitching.
However, it is not so easy for tourists 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 tours, and the cost of such a tour is about 40 thousand rubles.
