The Lena Pillars
The Lena Pillars (Yakut: Өлүөнэ туруук хайалара) is a geological formation and a natural park of the same name on the bank of the Lena River.
The Lena Pillars are located on the right bank of the Lena River, 200 km south of Yakutsk. To visit the Lena Pillars, you first need to reach the opposite bank and cross by boat. In the summer, you can also reach them by high-speed boats (a one-day trip is sufficient) or purchase a ticket for a three-day cruise on comfortable cruise vessels. In winter, visiting the Lena Pillars is easier: in February a road is renovated from the Batamay section to the Labydya tourist base, which is the main tourist base on the banks of the Lena Pillars. Until February, you can cross to the Lena Pillars on foot or by snowmobiles.
The Lena Pillars are a complex of vertically elongated cliffs stretching for many kilometers, bizarrely towering along the bank of the Lena River, which cuts through the deep valley of the Lena Plateau.
The rock formations, reaching 220 m above the river level (absolute elevations up to 321 m), are composed of Cambrian limestones. Tectonically, the Lena Pillars lie within the Siberian Platform. The beginning of the formation of the rocks that make up this natural monument is usually dated to the early Cambrian, around 540-530 million years ago.
The formation of the Lena Pillars as a landform is dated to a much later period - about 400,000 years ago, which is relatively recent geological time.
The territory of the Siberian Platform has undergone gradual uplift, resulting in the formation of faults and the creation of deep river valleys. This led to the activation of karst processes, which, along with ongoing erosional weathering, produced such bizarre and diverse forms of cliffs composed of carbonate rocks. On August 16, 1994, by decree of the President of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), the Lena Pillars Natural Park was established here. On July 2, 2012, the Lena Pillars were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List based on natural criteria, and on August 6, 2018, the Lena Pillars gained the status of a national park in Russia.
The Lena Pillars are a complex of vertically elongated cliffs stretching for many kilometers, bizarrely towering along the bank of the Lena River, which cuts through the deep valley of the Lena Plateau.
The rock formations, reaching 220 m above the river level (absolute elevations up to 321 m), are composed of Cambrian limestones. Tectonically, the Lena Pillars lie within the Siberian Platform. The beginning of the formation of the rocks that make up this natural monument is usually dated to the early Cambrian, around 540-530 million years ago.
The formation of the Lena Pillars as a landform is dated to a much later period - about 400,000 years ago, which is relatively recent geological time.
The territory of the Siberian Platform has undergone gradual uplift, resulting in the formation of faults and the creation of deep river valleys. This led to the activation of karst processes, which, along with ongoing erosional weathering, produced such bizarre and diverse forms of cliffs composed of carbonate rocks. On August 16, 1994, by decree of the President of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia), the Lena Pillars Natural Park was established here. On July 2, 2012, the Lena Pillars were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List based on natural criteria, and on August 6, 2018, the Lena Pillars gained the status of a national park in Russia.