The Polousny Range (Russian: Полоусный кряж ; Yakut : Полоуснай томтороот ) is a mountain range in the Sakha Republic , Far Eastern Federal District , Russia.
13-528: This range is one of the areas of Yakutia where kigilyakhs are found. The area of the Polousny Range was first mapped by geographer and ethnologist Baron Gerhard von Maydell (1835–1894) during his pioneering research of East Siberia. The Chondon mammoth was discovered in 2013, at the feet of the Polousny Range in the Chondon basin, 66 km south-west of the village of Tumat . The Polousny Range
26-654: A man" or "mountain married". The term "kigilyakh" is a distorted form of the original Yakut "kisilyakh" . Such stones are found in different places of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia , mainly in the East Siberian Lowland : Outside of Yakutia, similar formations are found in the island of Popova-Chukchina and the Putorana Plateau , in Krasnoyarsk Krai . Ferdinand Wrangel reported on the kigilyakhs on Chetyryokhstolbovoy, an island of
39-645: A result of cryogenic weathering . Most kigilyakhs formed during the Cretaceous period and are about 120 million years old. These anthropomorphic rock pillars are an important feature in Yakut culture . Often they are slightly scattered, protruding from the surface of smooth mountains and giving the impression of a standing crowd of people. According to Yakut legends kigilyakhs originated in very ancient people. The Yakut word "kisiliy" means "a place where there are people". Kisilyakh means "mountain having
52-794: A roughly east/ west direction from the headwaters of the Khroma River to the Indigirka for about 175 kilometers (109 mi). The highest peak is 968 metres (3,176 ft) high. In the east, the Ulakhan-Sis , a prolongation of the range on the other side of the Indigirka River, stretches eastwards. To the west rises the Kyun-Tas and southwest of it the Selennyakh Range . Lakes Ozhogino and Suturuokha are located by
65-669: Is part of the Momsko-Chersk Mountain Region ( Russian : Момско-Черская область ). It rises in the southern area of the Yana-Indigirka Lowland , north of the Aby Lowland in the Sakha region. It is made up of mountains of middle height and smooth slopes. It includes separate low mountain ranges with stretches of plain in between roughly aligned from east to west. The main ridge stretches in
78-709: The Medvezhyi Islands in the East Siberian Sea . He visited the island during his 1821-1823 expedition and named it after them ( Chetyryokhstolbovoy meaning "four pillars"). The kigilyakhs on Chetyryokhstolbovoy Island are about 15 m (49 ft) high. In Soviet times on the Kigilyakh Peninsula at the western end of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island , one of the New Siberian Islands, Vladimir Voronin , then in charge of
91-545: The Polar station on the island, was shown a large standing rock which had been heavily eroded and which gave its name to the peninsula. Medvezhyi Islands The Medvezhyi Islands , or Bear Islands ( Russian : Медве́жьи острова́ ; Yakut : Эhэлээх арыылар , Eheleex Arıılar ) is an uninhabited group of islands at the western end of the Kolyma Gulf of the East Siberian Sea . The first recorded European to report
104-675: The Medvezhyi group. On September 3, 1878, Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld recorded that he sailed close to the island group in the steamship Vega . This report was made during the famous expedition that made the whole length of the Northeast passage for the first time in history. The group was also explored during the Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition of 1910–1915. The Medvezhyi Islands are located about 100 kilometres (55 nautical miles) north of
117-750: The existence of the Medvezhyi Islands was Russian explorer Yakov Permyakov in 1710. While sailing from the Lena to the Kolyma River , Permyakov observed the silhouette of the unknown island group in the then little explored East Siberian Sea. In 1820-1824, during Ferdinand Wrangel 's Arctic expedition to the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea , Arctic explorer Fyodor Matyushkin surveyed and mapped Chetyryokhstolbovoy Island in
130-415: The mouths of the Kolyma River . They are part of the East Siberian Lowland . The coast of Siberia is about 35 km (19 nmi) southwest of Krestovsky, the largest island, which is about 15 km ( 9 + 1 ⁄ 2 mi) in length. The sea surrounding the Medvezhyi Islands is covered with fast ice in the winter and the climate is severe. The surrounding sea is obstructed by pack ice even in
143-652: The southern slopes of the eastern end of the range. The sources of the Allaikha and the Byoryolyokh , two important tributaries of the Indigirka, are located north of the range. The lower slopes of the mountains have larch forests and forest tundra vegetation, while the higher altitudes are covered by mountain tundra . In the context of the singularity of the geology of the Polousny Range, Russian geomorphologist M. Groswald commented: According to V. Spector,
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#1732784001283156-684: The structure of the Polousny Range consists of Upper Jurassic schists and sandstones , which are cut off by a leveling surface covered with Pliocene pebbles . But the most interesting thing is that, contrary to the geological logic of the whole region, the blocks and plates of the same Jurassic rocks are pulled up on the northern slope of the ridge —and pulled from the north at that... Kigilyakh Kigilyakh or kisiliyakh (Russian: кигиляхи ; Yakut : киһилээх , meaning "stone person") are pillar-like natural rock formations looking like tall monoliths standing more or less isolated. Usually they are composed of granite or sandstone shaped as
169-480: The summer months. There is commercial fishing in the area of the islands during the summer. This island group is a part of the territory of the Sakha Republic of Russia. As their name indicates, these islands are a refuge and breeding ground for polar bears . There are six islands in the group: Krestovsky, Leontyev, Pushkarev, Lysova, Andreev and Chetyryokhstolbovoy, where there is a polar station which
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