Fossil remains of animals preserved in the North in permafrost conditions attract the attention of not only venerable paleontologists, but also many curious tourists.
There are only two permafrost museums in the world, and both of them are located in Russia, beyond the Arctic Circle. The larger one is located in the suburbs of Yakutsk in old adits. The second, slightly smaller, but no less interesting, is located on the outskirts of the small town of Igarka in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. And where else, if not in these regions bound by snow and ice, you can place a museum of permafrost. According to visitors, without visiting it, acquaintance with the Far North will be incomplete.
House with mammoth figurines
Once the city of Igarka flourished thanks to the export of valuable timber, which is from the Igarsk seaporttraveled to many countries around the world. When the active timber extraction was stopped, the town gradually began to lose its importance.
However, Igarka attracts many tourists, because here is one of the museums of permafrost. On the outskirts of the city stands a small wooden house adorned with intricately carved images of mammoths.
There are very few exhibits in the house, the main miracle is under it. You need to go down to a depth of more than 10 meters, and there, among the interweaving of corridors and halls, you can see untouched ice. In fact, the corridors carved into the ice continue to great depths. But for safety reasons, tourists are not allowed there.
In the place of the Museum of Permafrost in Igarka there used to be a scientific permafrost laboratory. Then, back in 1965, an exposition dedicated to the finds of scientists was opened in one of the many underground halls. The museum received the official status of a local history complex only in 1995.
Breathing permafrost
The descent to the museum begins along a steep wooden staircase. At a depth of about four meters, a decorative window was made, behind which you can see what the frozen ground looks like. Heat flows still penetrate to such a depth, so the ground is penetrated by layers of transparent ice.
At a depth of 10 meters, there can be no talk of any heat. Here, thick layers of age-old ice are visible on the walls, and the walls are covered with a layer of snow. Please dress warmly before the tour!
The main part of the Museum's expositionpermafrost research is located higher (about 7 meters underground). Here is an extraordinary collection of relict ice, the oldest of which is over fifty thousand years old.
Unique ice collection
On supports made of thick logs there are samples of northern medicinal plants preserved in the thickness of the ice. It is also very interesting to see the trunks of relic trees forever frozen into the ground. From the analysis of wood samples, it became clear that their age is at least 24 thousand years. And many samples are much older.
Among the collection of ancient ice presented in the museum, the most valuable is a piece of ice from the Ice Mountain outcrop, discovered in 1972. And the most beautiful sample of ice was brought from the Yenisei. It is crystal clear, with air bubbles frozen inside. Unfortunately, the photos in the Museum of Permafrost in Igarka cannot convey all the beauty and majesty of the ice.
Time Capsule
In 1950, scientists studying the properties of permafrost set up a long-term experiment. In one of the ice halls, they laid a kind of "time capsule" - a box with newspapers from the time of the war. The purpose of the experiment was to find out how well fragile objects can be preserved in permafrost. The opening of the capsule is scheduled for 2045, almost 100 years after the start of the experiment.
Eternal Winter
According to guest reviews, it is better to visit the Permafrost Museum in Yakutsk in summer. There is a significant contrasttemperatures when it's hot outside, but in a huge cave it's always -10. Moreover, no one maintains this cold artificially, this temperature has been in this cave for many centuries.
In fact, the Museum is located in a huge glacier in the center of the reserved mountain Chochur-Muran. Once this cave was used to store food, and since November 2008, the Permafrost Museum has been operating here.
The place was not chosen by chance, here even in the walls you can see what eternal ice looks like - the whole soil is literally riddled with transparent ice paths. The entire cave is illuminated with colored lamps, from which ice crystals play and shimmer.
Tour of the museum halls
All guests are given warm jackets and felt boots at the entrance, no one has been able to freeze yet.
Inside the dungeon of the Museum of Permafrost is divided into several rooms. In the first one, guests are greeted by the northern lord of the cold Chyskhaan, whose sculpture is carved from a single piece of ice and dressed in a traditional Yakut costume. And next to it are the familiar figures of Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden. Younger visitors especially like that they are allowed to touch the ice sculptures.
Sculptors and museum workers showed remarkable imagination, making ice exhibits. Here you can lie down on a transparent ice bed covered with skins. Or sit on the majestic throne of Chyskhaan. It is difficult to list all the ice figures of people and animals of the North - fishermen, hunters, deer and even a large fish made of transparent ice.
The land of Yakutia is famous for its diamonds. Girlsvisiting the Museum of Permafrost, they really like the collection of ice jewelry - exact copies of famous jewelry. It is a pity that such a ring cannot be tried on.
Palaeontological Department
One of the ice halls is reserved for a kind of museum of paleo finds. The land of Yakutia is rich in fossils, well preserved in the conditions of eternal cold.
The main exhibit is a huge head of the Yukagir mammoth, found by hunters in 2002. Fossil parts are rarely found in such good condition.
There are bones of the so-called Kolyma rhinoceros nearby, a lot of mammoth tusks and various parts of fossil animals. It's nice that the guides can tell interesting details about the place of discovery and the value of any ancient exhibit.
In front of the entrance to this hall stands a very realistic effigy of a mammoth, covered with shaggy brown hair. Here's who you should definitely take a picture with.
Ice Bar
In the Museum of Permafrost, you can not only ride down a hill or whisper your wish to Santa Claus. For those guests who are chilled in the realm of eternal cold, a unique Ice Bar is equipped, in which all the dishes are cut out of ice. Here guests will be offered to drink a warming drink from an ice cup. And then you can try the traditional food of the northern peoples - stroganina.
Kids won't be bored either - after all, there is the biggest ice cream here. And they will offer to try "monkeys" - a local version of a coldgoodies.
When visiting the city with the Museum of Permafrost, it is worth seeing the entire ethnographic complex "Chochur-Muran", in the adit of which the museum is located.
Several unique wooden houses have been preserved here, among which the Hunter's House, turned into a museum, stands out. There is also a husky nursery and a pond in which many birds swim. It offers reindeer or dog sledding, fishing and hunting, as well as the opportunity to see traditional Yakut rituals.
