Salair Ridge. Map of Russia

54°05′23″ s. sh. 85°49′40″ E d. HGIOL

Salair Ridge- low-mountain upland in Southern Siberia, located on the territory of the Altai Territory, Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions of the Russian Federation. The length of the ridge is about 300 kilometers. Width 15-40 kilometers. The most significant peaks: Kivda (618 m above sea level), Barsuk (566), Gusek (589), Tyagun (562), Mokhnataya Gora (555), Sinyukha (536), Kopna (509).

Relief

The Salair Ridge is a heavily destroyed, partially leveled mountain range. For the most part, the ridge is a chain of low hills and ridges, largely plowed up. The main ridge and spurs are most pronounced in the central part of the ridge, between 55° and 53°30" north latitude. The ridge is strongly dissected by wide and gently sloping valleys.

An interesting feature of the Salair Ridge is that its northeastern slope in some places rises sharply, like a wall, above the plain. So, between the villages of Bekovo and Rozhdestvenskoye, at a distance of tens of kilometers, stretches a high, in a number of points sharply steep ridge of Tyrgan (Mountain of Winds). A similar ridge begins at Guryevsk and stretches in a northwestern direction to the villages of Gorskino and Krasnoye for several tens of kilometers. At the foot of this mountain range begins a completely flat terrain.

The Salair Ridge is more reminiscent of a strongly leveled hilly upland, dissected by erosion processes - wind and water destruction. By the nature of the relief, the Salair Ridge is clearly divided into the Salair Plateau and a short steep slope - the Kuznetsk Salair Region. Each of these areas is different only to him inherent features relief, due to the tectonic structure, composition rocks and the nature of the manifestation of erosion processes.

The Salair Ridge was formed as a mountain structure as a result of weak uneven uplifts in the Neogene on the site of a flooded plain. The rocks of the Paleozoic basement are covered by the thickness of the Meso-Cenozoic weathering crust - bauxite-bearing clays, loams and pebbles. Mesozoic deposits are concentrated in depressions.

The gently undulating, leveled spaces of the Salair Ridge are dissected by a network of ravines and gullies into a system of complexly branching ridges. The relief of the plateau includes numerous remnants, the so-called "hills" or "stumps", composed of hard-to-weather rocks (diorites, gabbro, porphyrites, granites). The height of these remnants is different: Barsuk - 567 m, Mokhnataya Gora - 557 m, Pikhtovaya Gora - 510 m, Kopna - 509 m, Golden Mountain - 416 m, Belukha - 375 m.

The slopes of the mountains of the Salair Ridge are not symmetrical. The western slopes are gentle, gradually turning into the flat part of the Altai Territory. Everywhere you can see outcrops of ancient bedrocks: crystalline limestones, sandstones and shales. The eastern slopes are steep. A characteristic example of such a relief is Tyrgan ("Mountain of the Winds"), on which one of the districts of the city of Prokopyevsk is located. In the northern part, the ridge is smoothed out and imperceptibly passes into the Kuznetsk basin, and the southern tip, more elevated, merges with the mountain system of Gornaya Shoria.

Hydrology

It is quite clear that the Salair Ridge influences the regime of groundwater and the Kuznetsk Basin. The Kuznetsk Alatau has the same significance in the groundwater regime of the adjacent lowlands. The peculiarity of the Alatau and Salair mountain systems lies in their meridional position, which has a great influence on the contrast in the climate of certain regions of the region and on the overall increased humidity within the mountains. The Salair Ridge in its southern part is a watershed between the basins of the Chumysh and Tom rivers with the upper part of the Chumysh, in the northern part between the Ob and Tom. The boundaries of the Salair Ridge run along the outcrops of the Paleozoic basement along the valley of the Chumysh River, and the northeastern boundary is clearly defined by the Tyrgan ledge (near the city of Prokopyevsk), which abruptly ends in the direction of the Kuznetsk basin.

A distinctive feature of the relief of the Salair Ridge is the presence of karst forms, which owe their origin to thick layers of karst limestones with a low occurrence of groundwater levels. These are funnels, hollows, ponors, dry logs, caves (for example, Gavrilovskaya).

The river network of the Salair Ridge is slightly incised, the valleys have gentle slopes and are often asymmetric. Watershed areas are weakly affected by erosion. They are usually flat, and on the larger ones, several levels of the leveling surface with the weathering crust are noticeably expressed, corresponding to certain cycles of denudation (destruction) associated with the uplift of the Salair Ridge. The loess cover smoothed out the initial irregularities and gave the relief modern smooth outlines, and in summer, in dry windy weather, it contributes to the formation of dust storms.

The formation of the relief of the Salair Ridge took place over a long period. In the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic and the Paleogene period of the Cenozoic, the area of the ridge was a plain with a thick weathering cover. The intensification of tectonic activity led to the movement of the Salair basement and the resumption of weathering, which contributed to the formation of deposits of bauxite, nickel, gold, silver, mercury, quartzites, limestones, clays and other minerals. However, the intensive mining of these minerals, especially by open pit and dump methods, has led to a change in the regime, pattern and runoff. river system. It also contributed to the development of ravines along the rivers.

A beautiful mountain range stretched throughout the Maslyaninsky district of the Novosibirsk region, which is why this area even received the flattering name "Siberian Switzerland". In terms of popularity and beauty, the Salair Ridge is only comparable to the Kuznetsk Alatau, but you can relax here at much more affordable prices. So we recommend that you look for the Salair Ridge on the map and quickly go to look at this amazingly picturesque natural attraction.

Peculiarities

The Salair Ridge stretched across the territory of three regions of Russia at once - in the Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions, as well as in the Altai Territory. Its total length is about 300 kilometers, and the highest peaks reach 550-600 meters. A section of the Salairsky Ridge of the Novosibirsk Region is considered the most beautiful, and here you can see the largest number of various natural attractions.

Particularly noteworthy are the Barsukovsky caves located in the complex, the length of which reaches up to 50 meters. The caves are interesting because, in fact, they are a complex labyrinth of grottoes and stone corridors connected to each other. Also, a unique number of bats lives here - only about 5 species, and all of them are listed in the Red Book. So lovers of extreme sports and thrills will certainly want to look into the caves and look at the winged inhabitants of this complex.

Travelers may also be interested in the marble quarry, located not far from the village of Peteni. Its stepped structure looks very unusual, almost like the steps of an old amphitheater, and the photos here are just incredibly beautiful. Another highlight of the quarry is multi-colored marble, individual layers of which can be seen upon detailed inspection.

Also in the Salair Ridge area is the Yurmanka ski resort and St. Nicholas Church of the 19th century.

How to get there

The Salair Ridge is about 180 kilometers away from the regional center of the Novosibirsk Region. To get to it, you need to leave Novosibirsk along the highway to Leninsk-Kuznetsky, pass Plotnikovo, Vladimirovka, Lebedevo, Novoabyshevo and Kourak. After the last settlement, you need to turn right and continue moving until the very ridge. If you get to the village of Peteni, located on the road, you can look at the marble quarry. Having reached the village of Barsukovo, you can see the Barsukovsky caves.

54°05′23″ s. sh. 85°49′40″ E d. HGIO Subjects of the Russian Federation

Salair Ridge- low-mountain upland in Southern Siberia, located on the territory of the Altai Territory, Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions of the Russian Federation. The length of the ridge is about 300 kilometers. Width 15-40 kilometers. The most significant peaks: (618 m above sea level) , (566), (589), Tyagun (562), Mokhnataya Gora (555), Sinyukha (536), Kopna (509).

Gora (495) is the Novosibirsk region.

Ridge boundaries [ | ]

The Salair Ridge begins with the spurs of the Altai Mountains in the Altai Territory, in the area of the Sary-Chumysh River, the western border of the ridge runs in the Altai Territory along the right bank of the Chumysh River, the eastern border of the ridge is located in Kemerovo region and runs in the west of the Prokopyevskiy district along the channel of the Kara-Chumysh and Chumysh rivers and in the south-west of the Guryevskiy district to Lake Tanaev Pond of the Promyshlenny district goes to the Novosibirsk region and ends with the Bugotaksky hills. The ridge is separated from the Kuznetsk Alatau by the Kuznetsk Basin, from the Mountain Shoria by the valley of the Kondoma River.

Relief [ | ]

The Salair Ridge is more reminiscent of a strongly leveled hilly upland, dissected by erosion processes - wind and water destruction. By the nature of the relief, the Salair Ridge is clearly divided into the Salair Plateau and a short steep slope - the Kuznetsk Salair Region. Each of these regions differs only in its inherent features of the relief, due to the tectonic structure, composition of rocks and the nature of the manifestation of erosion processes.

Hydrology [ | ]

The formation of the relief of the Salair Ridge took place over a long period. In the Cretaceous period of the Mesozoic and the Paleogene period of the Cenozoic, the area of the ridge was a plain with a thick weathering cover. The intensification of tectonic activity led to the movement of the Salair basement and the resumption of weathering, which contributed to the formation of deposits of bauxite, nickel, gold, silver, mercury, quartzites, limestones, clays and other minerals. However, the intensive extraction of these minerals, especially by open pit and dump methods, has led to a change in the regime, pattern and runoff of the river system. It also contributed to the development of ravines along the rivers Kasma, Chebura, Ur, Biryulya; landslides along the rivers Kandalep, Chebura, Chumysh, Kasma, Bachat - all this is the result of man-made impact on the geological environment with irreversible changes in the relief.

Vegetation [ | ]

In the western and southern parts of the Salair Ridge, summers are warm and long, with a fairly large amount of precipitation, and winters are relatively mild, with a thick snow cover that protects the soil from freezing. Here the black fir taiga with an admixture of aspen is the most widespread. The slopes and peaks of the ridge in places with less favorable climatic conditions are overgrown with light-coniferous pine forests with an admixture of birch, and sometimes larch. There are especially many light coniferous forests on the eastern slopes. These are the famous pine forests: Vaganovsky, Krasninsky, Guryevsky and others. Pine forests have a lush shrub and grass cover, but it is much rarer than in the black taiga. A lot of berries and mushrooms grow in the forest glades. In the black fir taiga with an admixture of aspen grows in places

Salair Ridge - ancient mountains that limit the Kuznetsk Basin from the west. Their length from south to north is about 300 km, width is 15-40 km. The ridge is strongly flattened, its average height is somewhat less than 400 meters from sea level. Several rivers originate from it, flowing to the east - to Inya, to the west - to Berd, Chumysh.

At the end of the 18th century, the Salair Ridge was perceived as part of the Altai. Later, like the Kuznetsk Alatau, the Salair Ridge was originally called the Kuznetsk Mountains by the Russians. On the river Sairair (Turkic-Mong. sair "dry rocky riverbed" and Turkic calamus, airy "small river") stood the village of Salairka. In 1787, a deposit of silver ores was discovered near the village of Salairka. The mine built on the basis of this deposit was named Salairsky. Now it is the city of Salair, Kemerovo region. Thus, the low ancient mountains later became known as Salair. From a great height, the ridge looks like a green island, raised on one side above the Kuznetsk Basin, on the other - above the Ob Plain. The main ridge and spurs are most pronounced in the central part of the ridge.

The Salair Ridge forms an arc bulging to the northeast. In the northwest, the ridge reaches the Bugotaksky (Turkic buga"bull", tag“mountain”, that is, “bull-mountain”) hills: Kholodnaya (380 m), Mokhnatoy (373 m) and Bolshoi (361 m). From the Bugotaksky hills, the Salair ridge turns sharply to the southwest into the bend of the Ob River.

The length of the Salair Ridge from south to north is about 300 kilometers, the width is 15-40 kilometers. The ridge is strongly flattened, its average height is somewhat less than 400 meters from sea level. The most significant of them are Kivda (618 m), Pikhtovaya (585 m), Badger (566 m), Gusyok (589 m), Tyagun (562 m), Mokhnataya (555 m), Sinyukha (536 m), Kopna (509 m ).

The ridge begins in the upper reaches of the Neni, the right tributary of the Viya, and the Antrop, the left-bank tributary of the Kondoma, and ends with the Bugotaksky hills in the Novosibirsk region with the highest elevation of 379 meters. The direction of the main ridge Salair is almost parallel to the Kuznetsk Alatau.

The Salair Ridge is low and does not have snowfields and mountain lakes; several rivers originate from it, flowing east to Inya and west to Berd and Chumysh. Yes, and Chumysh itself begins on Salair.

The Salair Ridge and the pre-Salair regions are quite rich in minerals. In the vicinity of the village of Peteni there is a well-known marble quarry in our Novosibirsk region. This quarry looks peculiar - in the form of steps. With the help of special equipment, marble blocks are cut out of a common mass of stone. The marble of the Petenevskoe deposit has a different color and is famous for its quality.

But Salair is best known for his loose gold. Almost all rivers of Salair are gold-bearing. Since ancient times, the population of these places has been engaged in prospecting. The historical center of gold mining on Salair is the village of Yegoryevskoye, located in the picturesque valley of the Suenga River. The entire, almost 200-year-old history of this village is connected with gold mining. Over the entire period of use of placers in the Egorievsk gold-bearing region alone, more than 10 tons of precious metal have been mined. Currently, industrial gold mining is carried out on the Sueng and its tributaries. For this, a special technical structure is intended - a dredge.

On Salair there are a number of plants rare for Siberia. In spring, the slopes of the Salair Ridge are a luxurious carpet of primroses. The snow has not yet completely melted, and from under last year's foliage, wonderful flowers are already making their way towards spring - kandyk, Altai anemone, goose onion, holatka, backache. European hoof is a relic plant that has been preserved on the Salair Ridge since the era when the climate in Siberia was much milder and broad-leaved forests prevailed. In hard-to-reach places, dense, impenetrable taiga, consisting of fir and aspen, has still been preserved. These gloomy dark coniferous forests are called black or black taiga in Siberia. In such a forest, dampness is always felt and twilight prevails - here is the kingdom of mosses, ferns and lichens. The mob is gloomy, gloomy, littered with deadwood. These are typical bear spots. But there are practically no large areas of fir left. One of the islands of fir forest has been preserved in the vicinity of the former village of Kotorovo. The natural monument "Black Forests of Prisalairye" is organized here.

The fauna of Salair is also rich. First of all, insects attract attention - the ubiquitous ants, forest bugs, bright and bizarre butterflies. On Salair there are a number of rare insects, for example, the Apollo butterfly, listed in the Red Book of Russia. In the taiga, on dead tree trunks, the work of longhorn beetles and bark beetles is clearly visible. They tirelessly process the trunks of dead trees. Grayling is found in the Salair rivers. This fish is typical for mountain rivers. Bats can be found in caves and hollows. There are bears, moose, wolves, lynxes and hares on Salair. The Salair taiga is an abundance of birds. More than a hundred species of birds live and breed here.

In winter, the taiga is like a fairy tale. Slender firs are covered with sparkling fluffy snow. At such a time, it seems that everything in the taiga has fallen asleep. But even in this harsh time, many animals are active. Squirrels and crossbills deftly exfoliate seeds from cones coniferous trees. Pine gives food to the largest taiga birds - capercaillie. All winter they feed on pine needles. Owls catch careless mice.

The nature of Salair is beautiful at any time of the year. But she needs protection. A number of specially protected natural areas have been created on the territory of Maslyaninsky and Toguchinsky districts. Careful attitude to the unique nature of the Salair Ridge is a guarantee that its pristine beauty and wealth will be preserved for future generations.

There is a picturesque elevated territory of the low-mountainous Salair Ridge. It stretches with its relatively leveled peaks for 300 km, up to 40 km wide. The highest point of the hill is the mountain with interesting name Kivda (618 m). The Barsuk (566 m) and Tyagun (562 m) mountains are also famous and popular for visiting. The beginning of the ridge in the north of Altai in the basins of Tom, Chumysh and Uksunai, then it follows the arc along the Guryesky and Kuzbass rivers along the Suenga river along the Tanai lake reservoir, continues to the Bugotaksky hills in the Novosibirsk region.

The relief of the Salair Ridge

By its origin, Salair is a fairly ancient ruined mountains, which are a chain of low hilly ridges. Some of them are open today. Once it was a high mountain range, today smoothed by erosion. The main peaks are presented in the center of the ridge between 53° - 55o N. sh. Throughout the Salair, wide river valleys cut through. From the northeast, the slope of the mountain system rises like a wall above the plain. Near the villages of Rozhdestvensky and Bekovo, the steep ridge of Tyrgan stretches. A similar form of relief is observed from Guryevsk to the village of Krasnoe. From the foot of these two steep ridges the plain begins.

Salair resembles a hilly upland leveled over geological time, dissected by the work of water and wind. In the relief of the Salair, geographers divide it into the vast Salair plateau and the steep orographic slope of the Salair region in Kuzbass. These regions are distinguished by the forms of modern relief, which depend on tectonics, constituent rocks and types of erosion. The ridge was formed by uneven tectonic uplifts in the Neogene time on a plain flooded by the sea. The basement of the Paleozoic age in the depressions of the ridge topography is overlain by Meso-Cenozoic deposits.

The gently sloping, leveled hills of Salair are dissected by gullies, logs, marshy river valleys into separate ridges. On the Salair Plateau there are rocky remnants composed of igneous rocks of diorites and gabbro, granites and porphyrites.

Asymmetric slopes from the west are gentle with outcrops of shales and sandstones, gradually turning into the Prisalair Upland. From the east, the slopes of the ridge are steep with a sheer Tyrgan. From the north, the relief of Salair is smoothed and continues with the Kuznetsk Basin. From the south, the relief rises, turning into. Over many millions of years, numerous karst forms have formed in the depths of the ridge due to water erosion.

Hydrology and rivers of the Salair Ridge

Salair is not distinguished by high relief, there are no accumulations of snow, but numerous rivers of the Ob and Tom basins begin here. According to scientists, Salair has great importance for the hydrological regime, level and condition of groundwater in the interfluve of the rivers and the Irtysh, the Kuznetsk lowland basin and the Kulunda steppe. Its hydrological significance is similar to the Alatau mountain system.

Salair and the Alatau mountains are located in a meridional position and affect the climate and humidity of the territory. Salair became a natural watershed and Tom. The largest river reservoirs of Salair are Suenga, Berd and Chumysh. Not so full-flowing, but very picturesque rivers are Ik, Chem, Bachat, Alambay and Konebikha. The rivers of Salair are rich in fish, especially grayling living in mountain river reservoirs.

The Salair rivers are of great interest to beginner water tourists; rafting of 1 class is carried out along Tom-Chumysh and Chumysh-Alambay. The picturesque river valleys are weakly cut into the relief due to the solid foundation of the territory of the Paleozoic age. Most of the villages and towns are located in the valleys of local rivers. The ridge is mostly uninhabited due to remoteness and taiga impenetrable forests.

History of the Salair Ridge

The bowels of Salair are rich in minerals. In ancient times, rumors about the fabulous riches of the territory reached ancient Greece, Herodotus mentions in his writings about the distant country of the Arimasna people living in southern Siberia.

The history of settlement and development of Salair is connected with the extraction of natural deposits. In 1787, ore containing silver was found near the village of Salairki on Sairairka. Soon a mine was built and the whole ridge was named Salair. And today the city of Salair is located here. The word "sair" among the Turks is translated as "stony dry riverbed".

After Yermak's campaign, the explorers began to develop and explore the South Siberian lands. The famous Akinfiy Demidov received the highest mining privileges in the Kuznetsk land and Salair. With the active participation of the Ural industrialist himself, his masters and miners, up to 100 deposits for the extraction of metal ores were discovered here by the 18th century. Soon the first smelters of Pavlovsk, Barnaul, Suzun and roads to mining enterprises were built. The ore from the Salairsky mine was transported to the smelters of Altai along the route built from Tomsk through Kuznetsk to Barnaul.
It is interesting to visit the old Ekaterininsky tract, along which alluvial gold was exported from the Berezovaya River. There is a lot of loose gold on the rivers of Salair, local residents have always been engaged in its extraction. Gold miners gathered in the village of Egorevsky on the Suenga River. In addition to gold and various metal ores, a marble deposit near the village of Peteni, deposits of limestone, coal and shale are known here.

Nature of Salair

The nature of Salair is extremely many-sided and diverse. The unique natural conditions and climate, high summer humidity, abundance of snow in winter and mild weather conditions contribute to the rapid growth of the green mass of grasses and trees. Even ordinary herbaceous plants grow on Salair to enormous sizes.
On spring days, the slopes are covered with a motley bright carpet of rare and Red Book primroses of the Altai anemone, goose onion, backache, kandyk, slippers, Mary's roots, relic hoof, bedstraw, brunners. Relics have been preserved from the times of domination in the territory of tropical prehistoric forests. A relic linden tree has been preserved since that time. Linden grove with an area of 18 hectares on the river Uksunay is a natural monument.

Salair's forests are mostly mixed aspen and birch, aspen and fir with an undergrowth of shrubs and the famous local tall grasses. There are pine forests Vaganovsky, Guryevsky, Krasnensky, aspen forests and birch groves. On the slopes from the east, light forests of pines and larches grow, along the wide valleys of local rivers of spruces, birches, pines and larches.

Draft taiga Salira

A special attraction of Salair is the so-called "Black or dark coniferous taiga", it is a gloomy and rather humid forest of fir and aspen, lichens and mosses grow everywhere. It is impassable and littered with deadwood, a kind of kingdom brown bears. The most valuable forests are made up of fir, but they are practically gone. Near the village of Kotorovo there is a fir grove, declared a natural monument, it is interesting to walk along an ecological path through such a forest. To preserve the unique biocenoses of the taiga of the dark coniferous Salair forests, the Red Book plants of the common wolfberry, the multipartite grapevine, the Zalesovsky reserve was created.

The fauna of the territory is striking in its diversity of species, it is the home of roe deer, bears, wolves, elks, foxes, lynxes, wolverines. There are many stoats, weasels, badgers, hares, minks, weasels, ferrets in the taiga. Among rodents, there are Siberian white-toothed shrews of the Red Book, among bats there are very rare species of pond bat, red anemone, great tube-billed whale, northern kozhan.

Up to 100 species of different birds nest on Salair, among the hunting birds in the dark coniferous forests are capercaillie and hazel grouse, in light pine and larch forests there are black grouse. Of the rare birds of prey, peregrine falcons, saker falcons, imperial eagles, eagles, golden eagles, short-toed eagles, shrikes nest. The taiga is rich in insects, ants, forest bugs, longhorn beetles, bark beetles, butterflies. In rivers and taiga lakes you can catch grayling, tench, minnow, pike, dace.

Salair in winter

In winter, the slopes of Salair invite lovers of skiing here. Amateur groups gather in the vicinity of Tyagun and Alambay, at the Togulenok railway station, bases of ski tourist communities have been built here. Many rent housing in nearby villages to start from here and return here. There are excellent natural conditions for organizing ski trips 1-2 grades.

Salair is very attractive for skiers, they will be warmly welcomed at the Novososedovo and Fir Comb, Tanai and Zolotaya Gora ski resorts. In the south of the ridge, a system of underground karst galleries was discovered, which are of interest to speleologists. You can visit the famous karst caves Barsukovskaya, Egoryevskaya, Krokhalevskaya, Novososedovskaya, Tomskaya, Gavrilovskaya, Uksunaiskaya.

Before you go to Salair, you need to know that there is practically no road communication here except for the Kuzbass-Altai road. There is also a railway line YuzhSib with underground tunnels and the Tyagun station known in these places.

Salair is interesting for paleontologists, here you can find bones of prehistoric rhinoceros and mammoth everywhere, everywhere in the alluvium of the Devonian and Carboniferous there are fossils. According to Chumysh, archaeologists have found sites of ancient people, burial mounds and memorial complexes.

An adherent of energy-information and sacred practices, Salair is attracted by the so-called Places of Power, which affect the consciousness of people in the most unusual way. A person here feels energy flows, euphoria and confidence, sees color glows, activation creativity. Greenery grows wildly here, healing water flows in the springs.