In our vast country, there are many mountain ranges that differ from each other in the height of their ridges, as well as climatic conditions. Most of these massifs are little mastered by man, are poorly populated, and therefore nature here managed to preserve its original, natural appearance.
Of all the mountain systems located in our country, the most remarkable, the most unknown, the most beautiful are the Sayans. These mountains are located in the south of Eastern Siberia and belong to the Altai-Sayan folded region. The mountain system consists of two ranges called the Western and Eastern Sayan. The Eastern Sayan is located almost at a right angle relative to the Western Sayan.
The Western Sayan stretched for about six hundred kilometers in length, and the Eastern one for a thousand. Consisting of peaked and leveled ridges, which are separated by intermountain basins, the Western Sayan is sometimes considered a separate mountain system - the mountains of Tuva. Eastern Sayans - mountains, which are pronounced mid-mountain ranges; there are glaciers on them, the melting water of which forms rivers belonging to the Yenisei basin. Between the Sayan ridges there are more than a dozen basins, the mostvarious sizes and depths. Among them is Abakano-Minusinskaya, very well known in archaeological circles. The Sayans are relatively low mountains. The highest point of the Western Sayans is Mount Mongun-Taiga (3971 m), and the highest point of the Eastern Sayans is Munku-Sardyk (3491 m).
According to written documents and maps dating back to the 17th century, the Sayan Mountains were first considered as one object - a relatively small Sayansky Kamen ridge, now called the Sayansky ridge. Later this name was extended to a wider area. Abutting its southwestern part against the Altai, the Sayan Mountains stretch to the Baikal region.
The slopes of the Sayans are mostly covered with taiga, which turns into subalpine and alpine meadows, and in higher places - into mountain tundra. The main obstacle to agriculture is the presence of permafrost. In general, the Sayans are mountains covered with light larch-cedar and dark-coniferous spruce-cedar and fir forests.
On the territory of the Sayans there are two largest wildlife reserves. In Vostochny there are the famous Stolby, famous for its rocks of volcanic origin, so popular among rock climbers. The Western Sayan Mountains are the territory of the Sayano-Shushensky Reserve, where brown bears, wolverines, sables, lynxes, deer, musk deer and many other animals live, including those listed in the Red Book (for example, irbis, or snow leopard).
Man began to settle in the Sayan intermountains about forty thousand years ago, about whichevidenced by the remains of stone tools found at primitive sites. In the Western Sayan, traces of the Uyuk culture were found. So, in one of the burials in the Valley of the Kings on the Uyuk River - in the grave of a Scythian leader - 20 kilograms of gold items were found. Russians began to settle here in the 17th century, having founded fortified settlements - stockades along the banks of local rivers, which at that time were the only transport route. And today the Sayans are a sparsely populated territory. The population prefers to live near roads and large rivers, although there are small peoples living far from civilization. So, in one of the hard-to-reach areas - Tofalaria - the Tofalari (Tofy) people live, the number of which is less than 700 people.
