Reserve "Ubsunur Hollow". Biosphere Reserve in the Republic of Tuva of the Russian Federation

Long gone are the times when the whole planet was one big nature reserve. Mankind has done a good job and rebuilt the Earth in its own way, adjusted it to itself. And the further, the more valuable for us are untouched, primordial corners, where for many thousands of years nothing has changed ...

Famous Reserves in Russia: List

Fortunately, there are a lot of such corners 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:

• The 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: conservation of fur-bearing fauna.
• Ussuriysky Nature Reserve - is located in Primorsky Krai. The goal is to preserve coniferous and broad-leaved trees.
• The Great Arctic Nature Reserve is located on the islands in the Arctic Ocean and the Taimyr Peninsula. The goal is to preserve rare species of birds.
• Reserve "Pillars" - is on the right bank of the Yenisei. The goal is to preserve rare species of flora and vertebrates.
• The Baikal Nature Reserve is located around Lake Baikal. The aim is to preserve rare species of plants, animals, birds and fish.
• Altai Reserve - is located in the same mountains. The aim is to preserve a unique complex of lakes, wild mountain vegetation and a rare animal - snow leopard.
• Valley of Geysers - is in Kamchatka and is one of the seven wonders of Russia. The goal is to preserve the geyser fields, which have no analogues in Eurasia.
• The Caucasian Reserve is located in the south and north of the Western Caucasus. The goal is to preserve the rarest animals: tours and bisons.
• Sayano-Shushensky Reserve - is located in the southern part of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, in the basin of the Yenisei River. The goal is to preserve cedar trees and snow leopards.
• The Far Eastern marine reserve is located in the Gulf of the Sea of Japan. The goal is to preserve rare marine and coastal flora and fauna.

Reserve "Ubsunur Hollow" - the pearl of Russia

It is about this place that we will tell in our article. The names of the reserves from the list above are mostly familiar to Russians and not only. These places are popular tourist sites, and many tourists had the good fortune to visit them.

The situation is different with the Ubsunur hollow 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, the rarest of places, but not everyone can reach it. After all, the basin from prying eyes reliably hides the "shell" of mountain ranges ... But only the one who managed to get here can say that he saw everything in life!

Description of the basin

The Ubsunur hollow shocked even sophisticated travelers. Its versatility simply does not fit into the head. Blinding sun, endless blueness above the head, a barkhan desert, a golden ring sweeping the lake. On the shore of the lake there are riotous reeds. Around the desert - wormwood steppes, and above - the mountains with alpine meadows and forests. From above down the crystal rivers flow down. The ridges close the space, and to the person below it, it seems that he has got into some magic casket with jewels.

Uniqueness of the reserve

The reserve "Ubsunur Hollow" is truly unique. Every sane person, for sure, will ask the question: how in one place can there be mountains, steppes, deserts, and lakes ?! But the uniqueness of the Ubsunur hollow is that it combines many different ecosystems and is a "collector" of almost all natural zones of the temperate climate. Here they are adjacent to each other: sandy and clay deserts, dry and high grass steppes, forest-steppe, deciduous and cedar forests, dry and waterlogged loaches and tundras.

And all this "parade of landscapes", this whole model of the globe - on a relatively small territory!

Geographical characteristics

The reserve "Ubsunur Hollow" lurked in The heart of the Asian continent. The bowl, surrounded by mountains, stretched for 600 kilometers in length and 150 in width. On its bottom (in the western part) there is a large enough (80 to 70 km) Lake Ubsu-Nur, which probably gave the name to the basin. Scientists say that it was once a piece of the sea. The water in the lake remains salty to this day, despite the fact that all mountain rivers of the basin drain into Ubsu-Nur.

From different directions from the outside world, the reserve fences the Sangilen Highlands, East and West Tannu-Ola Ranges, Bulnai-Nuru Rivers, Khan-Khuhei Ranges. Tsagan-Shibetu, massifs of Turgen-Ula and Kharhir.

Deserts in the basin are the northernmost in Eurasia, and the "oasis" of permafrost is considered the southernmost on the planet in the conditions of the plains.

Past basin

Today, the Ubsunur Basin is the Republic of Tuva, and at one time it has become a battleground for nomadic peoples who have won a place in the sun for themselves. The Huns, Scythians, Mongols, Turks and other legendary, long gone to oblivion tribes passed here. All of them left a memory of themselves in the form of cemeteries, burial mounds and ritual stones, which harmoniously blended into the local landscape and are a huge historical value.

And in times of peace the peoples who stayed at the bottom of the hollows grazed in the steppes and meadows of the sheep, built yurts, and the smoke of the fires rose to the bottomless sky ... Thousands of years ago, in the old days, there was a typical Central Asian climate that has survived to this day.

A place shrouded in legends

The difficult location of the Ubsunur hollow makes it mysterious and mysterious even in the eyes of people living close by. At all times they have piled up about this unique corner of the legend, parables and myths. One of the most interesting legends, which the Republic of Tuva can boast of, is the legend of a naive camel. The protagonist of the work lent his lush tail to a horse, so that he could drive away importunate insects. To the deer are the chic horns for the time of the wedding ceremony ... And so on. And there is a poor man at the top of the mountain, looking out for his debtors in the forest or in the steppe ... And they trail a trace. And no one is going to give anything to a gullible beast.

The fauna of the Ubsunur hollow

It is no accident in one of the most popular legends associated with this place, it is about animals. The reserve "Ubsunur Hollow" is a unique place with unforgettable nature. The fauna here is the richest! Lake Ubsu-Nur is a house for fish called Altaic Osman. Nowhere else in the world is this species found! And around the lake there are thickets of reeds, and in them - a huge number of birds, many of which are listed in the Red Book.

On the plains, among the ancient burial mounds, wild camels are often found. In the steppe live gophers, senovets, tarbagans and other rodents. In the forests wander the bears and deer. And the biggest asset of the Ubsunur hollow and the whole Republic of Tyva is the snow leopard and musk deer. Rare animals, over which for more than one century in a row the threat of extinction hangs, they try to save.

History of the Reserve

The unique natural characteristics of the Ubsunur hollow make this place extremely attractive in the eyes of scientists. Still would! After all, you can study different types of landscapes and ecosystems without overcoming thousands of kilometers and not wasting valuable time! Many questions will be answered only by the Republic of Tuva, the nature of which is so diverse. There are very few similar places in Russia.

The goal of creating a state biosphere reserve here was to ask Russians long ago - back in the eighties of the last century. However, at first the project of the international reserve was considered - the common brainchild of Russia (then the USSR) and Mongolia. But the lack of a legal basis for the objects of such status put a cross on the dream.

And then the Russian side in 1993 created the reserve "Ubsunur Hollow", which is under the auspices of UNESCO. And exactly the same work was done by the Mongols, creating the reserve "Ubsunur basin" a year later. Formally, the object is divided between two states, and in fact is a single organism, with a common flora, fauna and ecosystem.

Symbols of the reserve "Ubsunur Hollow"

The names of reserves are an ordinary, mandatory attribute that everyone has. But not everyone has the symbolism. The reserve, located in the Ubsunur hollow, 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 sign of the source of life, "yin" and "yang", colored stripes diverge in different directions. Each of them is responsible for a certain landscape. Brown-yellow - for the desert and steppe; Green - in the taiga; Violet-blue - for the tundra, etc. The pennant depicts an emblem, inscriptions, and another figurine of a maral - a deer with chic horns.