The Minusinsk basin, also called the intermountain depression, is located on the border of Khakassia and the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Mountain ranges rise around the basin. Its southern and southwestern borders are framed by the mountain systems of the Western Sayan. The northwestern and western sides of the basin are "guarded" by the Abakan Range, and Vos is located in the east
accurate Saiyan. The Minusinsk Basin is open only from the north - the West Siberian Plain is spread there. The large rivers Abakan, Yenisei, Chulym and Tuba turn the mountain valley into a green and fertile land. Even on the eastern dunes of the basin, a beautiful pine forest grows.
The Minusinsk Basin is famous for its gardens, founded by the exiled Decembrist Krasnokutsky. Another Decembrist by the name of Krivtsov in a letter called this area Siberian Italy. The hollow received such a flattering name not in vain - it’s verydiverse and rich nature surrounding Minusinsk. The Krasnoyarsk Territory is replete with beautiful clean lakes surrounded by willows and poplars and stormy mountain rivers. Rich water meadows are interspersed with s alt marshes and feather grass steppes, and alpine meadows are hidden among the mountains, fragrant with hundreds of herbs and flowers. Part of the mountains surrounding the basin is covered with wild taiga, which is rich not only in wood, but also in a valuable type of marble.
Besides picturesque places, the Minusinsk basin is full of history. Even now, archaeologists find traces of various eras in it, from the Paleolithic to the Middle Ages. Various tribes and cultures have left "traces" in the form of burial grounds and ancient mounds, ruins of cities and settlements, rock art, stone sculptures and figures of unknown creatures. Scientists were especially interested in sculptures of stone animals. It was these examples of ancient art that attracted the first archaeologists to Siberia.
Minusinsk region was full of such sculptures. Some figures, carved from granite or sandstone, look like flat stelae, others are high reliefs
4 meters high. Particular attention is drawn to a group of steles with animal masks topped with characteristic headdresses. From this group stands out the stele, called "Shirinsky Baba". It resembles an ancient totem, in the center of which the face of a man-beast is carved, framed by an ancient ornament. Under the mask there is a grinning muzzle of a wild beast, and above it a realistic human face is visible. Togetheris a very harmonious and mysterious composition, the secret of which has not yet been revealed. Scientists have just begun to unravel the secrets of ancient stelae. Only in 1960, historians established that almost all the Yenisei stelae were carved by the tribes of the Okunev culture, which inherited the name of the Okunevsky ulus, near which the excavations took place.
The Minusinsk Basin keeps the history of not only local peoples. The horde of Genghis Khan also passed through the basin, leaving a trail of burned castles and devastated cities. Scientists also find here the remains of ancient routes along which caravans from Central Asia, Arabia, Tibet and China went. For more than a century, historians and archaeologists have been solving mysteries and reconstructing the history of this ancient corner of the planet.
