Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts

Friday 12 June 2020

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Kalyazin Bell Tower is a 244 feet Neoclassical campanile over the waters of Volga River opposite the old town of Kalyazin, in Tver Oblast, northwestern Russia. Kalyazin is a small town with a population of around 14,000 people. This town is 200km from Moscow and 160km from Tver. The steeple belfry was built in 1796 as part of the Monastery of St. Nicholas. Of its 12 bells, the largest weighed some 17,000kg. Kalyazin Bell Tower is also known as Nikolsky Cathedral Bell Tower, & Flooded Belfry.

It was cast in 1895 to commemorate the coronation of Nicholas II of Russia. In 1939, Joseph Stalin ordered to construct Uglich Dam, then the old parts of Kalyazin & architectural monuments were flooded and submerged under the Ulich reservoir. This includes medieval structures, Saint Nicholas Monastery and Troitsky Makariev Monastery.

In present days, katholikon was taken apart, while the campanile was left, a landmark towering above the water. The Kalyazin Bell Tower structured was severed as a marker for ships and sailors traveling the nearby towns. However, occasionally this tower was also used by Orthodox Christian ceremonies. You can still see majestic Bello tower is standing robustly risen from the water and pursuit of modernization of Russia.

You will a little bit disappointed to see the empty inside of the tower as fixtures and furniture were removed immediately before the water levels rose. Whereas originally just a tower, it has been filled in a bit and reinforced to give it more of an island stance. The average depth of 5 m and deep as 23 m in some spots, as most of the buildings, were damaged and covered by water.

Kalyazin Bell Tower is now becoming a popular tourist attraction, as visitors come to see the iconic ancient tower and marvel the many centuries-old structures. A small boat dock on the outside to facilitate the visitors. It also entices the swimmers to have dipped in the water. If you are going to this small beautify city, then make a plan to see this bell tower of the pre-Staling history of the USSR. In Kalyazin you can also, see the Kremlin, Red Square, the Mariinsky Theatre, and glimpses of everyday life in the USSR.

 

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia
The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia
The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

The Historic Kalyazin Bell Tower, Russia

Product You May Interested


Friday 20 April 2018

The Mysterious Stone Spheres of Champ Island


The Champ Island is a popular place among tourists who sail on a cruise to the Arctic. The island has strange objects, which is still not clear, even not expected to be solved in the near future. Champ Island is in the center of an area situated hundreds of miles north of Russia’s mainland coast, but they bagsied it forst so they own it, just like America owns the moon. No one knows with absolute certainty how these stones got here, since the island is of course uninhabited. There are no humans, and no human records, to explain what caused the stones to look like they do. Here’s seamlessly round boulders are scattered around the island, apparently growing out of the ground. Melting glaciers expose the surface of the island, washing away the rounded forms. It is one of various islands in the Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land, belongs to the most remote corners of Russia. The island hasn’t studied yet, are having relatively small grounds 375 square kilometers.

A concretion is a hard, compact mass of sedimentary rock formed by the precipitation of mineral cement within the spaces between the sediment grains. This island is very attractive and picturesque, untouched by civilization. The island has mysterious stone balls of impressive size and a perfectly round shape that causes the many conjectures about their appearance on these uninhabited lands. The mysterious various size round stones from greater than human height. Even some stones are very small just like a ping-pong ball; some of them are ideal cannonballs. Due to erosion many stones have lost their round shape due to the impact of strong winds, low temperatures and water, becoming similar to the other boulders. Anyone lucky enough to take a trip to the Arctic may well stop off here to wander around and have deep look into these natural wonders. When the glaciers melt away, sun rising heat, more of these mysterious spheres get revealed. This would be a more common place to research if it wasn’t so territoriality fragmented and distanced from the mainland.









Thursday 16 March 2017

Ice Cave Kamchatka, The Most Magical Cave in the World


The majestic ice cave is located on the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia. The Kamchatka Peninsula, is a region of exceptional natural beauty with its large symmetrical volcanoes, lakes, wild rivers and spectacular coastline. The Ice cave is about 1 KM long tunnel was formed by a hot water spring flowing beneath the glacial ice fields on the flanks of the nearby Mutnovsky volcano. Hence, with multicolored lights gently glowing from a translucent ceiling, a stream rippling through rocks beneath and a bright light in the distance, this tunnel looks like a passage to fairytale world. The breathtaking cave carved out of the living rock and ice of this world albeit on a remote fringe show ice caves carved by volcano-fed hot springs through the glaciers of Kamchatka. The magical caves lights shining purple, blue, green and yellow are no computer trickery as they are the result of sunlight streaming through the glacial ice into the hidden world below.

The cave was carved out of the glacier by an underground river that is sourced in a hot spring gushing from the Mutnovsky volcano itself, as this volcano is the heart of Kamchatka. And the heart is literally beating and you can feel it while the earth is slightly moving under your feet'. The glaciers on Kamchatka volcanoes have been melting in recent years, result in roof of this cave is so thin that sunlight penetrates through it, strangely illuminating the icy structures within. The magical place has only been explored due to its remaining off-limits to outsiders until the 1990s. The modest human exploitation has kept the peninsula and its flora in largely pristine condition. Outside, the glacier was very dirty and grey. But inside, everything was different. As the melting snow and light passed through the thin walls, reflecting surprisingly bright colors and walls and ceiling of the frozen world are made up of layers of compacted snow, with the river softly gurgling through a long chamber illuminated by light glinting through windows made of ice. It is hard to find such places without a guide at the moment, it is impossible to get there as half of snow covering everything.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday 24 February 2017

Big Stone River, Russia


The “Big Stone River” is a chaotic jumble of massive boulders flowing down the slope of the Taganay Mountains in the Southern Urals, on the territory of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. The big river of stone is 6 kilometers long and averages 200 meters in width and 700 meters wide. The enormous rock slide is thought to have formed during the last glaciation more than 10,000 years ago. Therefore, at that time, glaciers were well covered the top of the ridges of the Taganay mountains reaching almost heights up to 4,800 meters. Hence, under the gigantic weight of this ice, the top of the mountain was pulverized into masses of large boulders. Moreover, when the ice melted away, these rocks slowly slide down the hill making the Big Stone River. The geological feature is named “river” only because it look like as such, not because it really flows. Though, the rock slide has been sitting motionless for thousands of years, as the river is occupied by big blocks of quartzite an extremely compact and hard rock consisting of quartz including aventurine. This is a form of quartz containing mica or iron compounds that provides it a shimmering or glistening effect, weighing up to 9 to 10 tons each. The layer of rocks goes down 6 meters deep.

More interestingly, as one reaching the Big Stone River, the crisp sound of running water can be heard. The sound is created by small streams running under the rocks. Therefore, the Big Stone River is not the only stone river on earth though. Alike rivers of stone are found in other regions of the Ural Mountains. Outside of Russia, numerous stone rivers can be found in the Vitosha Mountain, in Bulgaria. One of the largest extends over 2 km in length is located on the Subalpine plateaus at the Zlatnite Mostove (‘Golden Bridges’) site in the upper course of Vladayska River. One more stone river in Vitoshka Bistritsa River valley is up to 300 m wide, and other stone run formations sprawl even wider on the mountain slopes.










Friday 17 February 2017

Lena’s Stone Forest in Russia


Lena’s Stone Forest, is also called Lena's Pillars, actually a natural rock formation about 60 km upriver from Yakutsk, in Russia. Lens’s Pillars are amazing stone structures towers over 150 meters in height and extends along the river for about 80km. This magical place has captivated travelers since the 17th century, however getting there is a real challenge.  Lena Stone forest contains exceptional evidences of the Earth and its living population development history. Plentiful fossils of ancient organisms found here are exclusive preserved evidences of a very significant stage in the history of the organic world and a biodiversity "boom” that occurred in lower Cambrian epoch. This exclusive ecological and tourism location was submitted as a World Heritage site in 2006. Moreover, 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) and ancient organisms like mollusks, shells, sponges, and trilobites, dating back to the Cambrian Explosion were also found beautifully preserved.
These isolated, towering pillars can reach more than 100 meters in height. The pillars’ rocks formed in Cambrian sea basins more than 500 million years ago and are made up of alternating layers of limestone, marlstone, dolomite, and slate. This areas severe climate and the humidity from the river create risky temperature swings, from +40 °C in the summer to -60 °C in winter. Therefore, this has caused a cryogenic process, containing of a freeze-thaw action that shatters the rock, widening the gullies between them.
The journey starts from Moscow city from where you will have to take a four day journey to the Siberian area of Yakutsk. First, you have to take a flight to Yakutsk, so long that if you flew opposite direction you could easily come to New York. The average price for such flight costs around $800. From Yakutsk you have to take a boat. However, supposedly only a half a day’s trip upriver, it takes considerably longer and the locals can offer you a three day trip on a small boat for about $500. Eventually after 4 days of travel, you’ll be able to have arrived at your destination.