Sometimes, in order to plunge into the pristine splendor of nature, you do not need to go to the ends of the world. There are many wonderful places in her native country where she keeps her amazing beauty for us.
One of them is the Ice Mountain with the Kungur cave hiding in its depths underground lakes, mysterious grottoes, ice blocks frozen in bizarre shapes. Since 2001, they together form a historical and natural complex.
Location and description of Ice Mountain
In the north-east of the city of Kungur in the Perm Territory is Mount Ledyanaya. Its height is small, just over 90 m above the bottoms of two rivers - Shakva and Sylva, the watershed between which it occupies. The mountain is a plateau-like upland cut by karst formations in the form of funnels of a round or cone shape. Some have gentle slopes covered with turf, others have steep edges. The largest of them reach 15 m in depth and exceed 50 m in diameter. Some funnels are filled with water and form karst lakes.
Sometimes on the surface there are pits up to 1 km wide, mostly shallow. Quite a lot of karstdips, the vast majority of which do not exceed 5 m in diameter, the rest - 10 m. Some are united among themselves into group failure depressions of various sizes. Karst formations are unevenly distributed: in some places their density per 1 sq. km. km. reaches up to 3000 pieces, and there may not be a single one in the neighborhood. A large accumulation of depressions is located in the Baidarashki tract, on the outskirts of the northwestern slope of the mountain. Its top is also indented by karst funnels. Ice Mountain is a unique geological object. It is also the most visited tourist attraction.
Mountain vegetation
Mount Ledyanaya, where the diversity of vegetation and soil cover is explained by the extremely uneven relief, is listed as part of the Kungur island forest-steppe, in the subzone of the southern taiga. The mountain range is covered with vegetation of three types: forest, meadow and steppe. Here there are plants that are uncharacteristic for the flora of the Perm Territory. The southern slope is covered with relict steppe and mountain-steppe plants that have adapted to the plastered soil.
Silver threads of feathery feather grass spread over its surface, and blue balls of mordovnik bloom in the middle of summer. Protected species of plants are found on Ice Mountain: red pollenhead, Taliyev's thyme, sunflower, Danish astragalus and others. It is forbidden to collect medicinal herbs, pick flowers, and make fires in this area.
Kungur cave
The ice mountain is closely connected with the pearl of the Urals hidden in its bowels - the Kungur ice cave,which breathes through organ pipes and funnels on its surface, and the steppe plants above grow thanks to easily permeable cave rocks. Formed 260 million years ago, they are composed of gypsum and anhydrite with layers of dolomite and limestone. The rocks belong to the Permian period of the geological history of our planet.
The uniqueness of the cave lies in its unusual appearance, created by bizarre ice stalagmites and stalactites, numerous lakes and picturesque grottoes. The length of this realm of frozen ice and stone is almost 6 km, it is the seventh largest in the world, but, undoubtedly, the first in beauty.
According to scientists, the cave is at least 10 thousand years old. Over the past millennia, as a result of countless collapses, most of the vaults in the grottoes have taken on a domed shape. The purest air, galactic silence, the grandeur of the ice decoration make the Kungur cave the rarest natural curiosity. It is located low, only 120 m above sea level, so there are no mountain glaciers or permafrost, but there is a reference microcirculation of air for caves, similar to stove draft, which determines the peculiarities of the cave climate.
Each year, the ice statues change their shape under the influence of the temperature of the incoming air, the cave is constantly changing. In most of the central grottoes, due to the heat of the Earth, “eternal spring” reigns (+ 6 ° C). The state of the ice in the cave is affected by the temperature on the surface: the lower it is, the more cold is stored inside.
From the history of developmentcaves
Kungur cave has been known to people for a long time. Who and when discovered it is unknown. There is an assumption that Ice Mountain served as a winter camp for Yermak's squad in 1578, before his campaign in Siberia. Now at the top is Ermakovo settlement - an archaeological monument.
The first scientific information about the Kungur cave was collected by Semyon Remezov in 1703. He made her plan. Later, many travelers and geographers-scientists studied and described it, so this is the most explored cave in Russia. Its first keeper was Alexander Khlebnikov, an enthusiast and romantic, a patriot who devoted his whole life to the cave. From 1914 and for almost 40 years he studied the cave, equipped it, led numerous excursions. Currently, the main route for tourists is electrified. The artfully illuminated cave looks simply magical.
Cave tours
The unique ice cave in Kungur attracts a lot of tourists. Visitors can not only admire this beautiful creation of nature, but also learn a lot of interesting things. Tours are held every day. Their duration is 1 hour 20 minutes, during which tourists will be able to visit three seasons of the year. It is winter, spring, autumn and again winter. They will visit 20 grottoes, learn many facts related to the discovery and study of the cave, hear legends and interesting stories.
For the convenience of tourists, the Stalagmite complex with a hotel, parking lots and a restaurant is located nearby.
