Factual information
— Salekhard is the capital of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the only city on the Arctic Circle.
— Population — approximately 39,000 people.
— Distance to Moscow — 2436 kilometers.
— Travel by public transport is 13 rubles, by minibus — 17 rubles.
My love for Salekhard is woven from shimmering snowflakes, flashes of the northern lights, the aroma of the tundra, the sweet and sour taste of lingonberries with a slight bitterness, the Ural Mountains covered with clouds, endless expanses, the highest snowdrifts, a lilac-pink carpet of fireweed. As soon as the panorama of the city appears through the window, I feel that I have flown home, although I have been living very, very far from here for ten whole years.
Salekhard can be different: a neat toy city with colorful houses in the central part, motley and unsettled on the outskirts, almost deserted and quiet in the summer, noisy, seething in early autumn. It is best to come here at the very end of August - beginning of September. Autumn in Salekhard is extraordinary - bright, colorful, fragrant. In order to see it in all its glory, you must definitely visit the tundra and the banks of the Ob.
Autumn in the tundra
Vast, boundless space and a low, low sky, as if clinging to the ground. It seems that just a little more - and it will be possible to reach the clouds. The leaden sheen of the river with bluish tints and huge stones making the bank almost impassable. Strict, majestic and silent beauty. Like an embodied metaphor for pride and free loneliness.
But there are other places - a joyful and cheerful polar forest with dwarf birch trees, touching young fir trees, shrubs and berries. In autumn, the forest (more precisely, of course, the forest-tundra) is filled with lush colors. Nature takes revenge for the strict palette of snow days, of which there are on average about 200 per year. Golden yellow, crimson, bright orange, soft green, purple, snow white, sky blue, dark green, rich red shades combine with each other with unreal harmony.
You walk along the springy earth (the area is very swampy), inhale unusually clean, crystal-clear air, pick deep red lingonberries, black-purple blueberries, bluish-lilac blueberries, and sometimes wild rose berries. It is especially tasty after the first frost - soft, sweet and sour, orange-red.
You can also pick mushrooms: tight boletus mushrooms, noble porcini mushrooms, colorful russulas. Or just sit on soft hummocks, warmed by the sun and enjoy the ringing silence.
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Useful tips
— Be sure to take insect repellent with you and choose the most closed clothing possible—mosquitoes and midges are rampant in the tundra. Although at the beginning of autumn there are significantly fewer of them than in summer.
— It’s better to choose waterproof shoes—the area is swampy.
— A favorite vacation spot for Salekhard residents is Karchagi, which unites the Ob River with a sandy shore and a picturesque forest. They get there by car, or by taxi.
— The indigenous peoples of the North (Nenets, Khanty) treat the tundra and the land very carefully. Even traditional shoes are made in such a way as not to damage the soil. Remember - we are guests in the tundra and must behave respectfully.
Monuments of Salekhard
Over the past few years, Salekhard has changed a lot, especially the city center. It is built up with brand new multi-colored multi-story buildings with crimson and blue roofs, bright yellow, blue, and green walls and turrets. Rich colors enliven the snow-white winter palette of the city and bring warmth to it.
And many interesting monuments appeared in Salekhard. Some of them claim to be unique. Like, for example, the Torch Bridge over the Shaitanka River. It should be noted that it evokes mixed feelings among local residents - the river is very small, modest, but the bridge is massive, solid - a real architectural object. Despite this incompatibility, it has become one of the calling cards of the city.
The bridge, built in the shape of a giant torch, has no analogues in the world. His project was even awarded a bronze diploma at the international festival “Zodchestvo-2005” and claims its place in the Guinness Book of Records. The highlight of the bridge is the three-story restaurant located above it, installed on inclined pylons. It is this that gives the bridge the resemblance to a lit gas torch. You can get there by two observation elevators. The supporting supports of the bridge are strongly inclined towards the river, making it seem as if the restaurant is hanging over the water.
Nearby, on the river embankment, there is a monument to a reindeer made of aluminum alloy. It is about 6 meters high and weighs an average of 2 tons. For the aborigines of the Far North, deer is food, clothing, transport, housing, work, and the main character of local legends. Therefore, on the pedestal are inscribed lines from a poem by the Nenets poet and writer Leonid Laptsui: “In the fairy tales of ancient Yamal, in the songs of new generations, everywhere people honor deer with a word of gratitude.” During my childhood (mid-90s), you could still see sledges drawn by reindeer on the central streets. And this is not on the occasion of any holiday, but simply a Nenets or Khanty came to Salekhard on business.
Another monument to the northern animal is a ten-meter sculpture of a mammoth. The fact is that in the area of the local Yuribey River in 1998, the skeleton of a four-month-old mammoth Masha was discovered, which is now kept in St. Petersburg in the Zoological Museum. And in Salekhard there remains an exact copy of Masha, made in Japan. By the way, in May 2007, reindeer herder Yuri Khudi discovered an amazingly well-preserved baby mammoth with a trunk, eyes and remnants of fur on the body on a bend in the Yuribey River. It was established that the baby mammoth died more than 10 thousand years ago. This find became a major archaeological sensation.
One of the most famous monuments of the city is the “66th Parallel” stela (another name is “Arctic Circle”). It symbolizes the geographical uniqueness of Salekhard - the only city on Earth located on the Arctic Circle, which divides Salekhard into two parts. The stele consists of two tall pyramids, separated in the center by a semicircle. In the evening, the lights turn on outside and inside, depicting the northern lights. Near the monument, tourists undergo a ritual of crossing the Arctic Circle, after which participants are awarded certificates.
Another monument, the only one of its kind, is dedicated to the romantics of the 70s, who traveled to the North “for the fogs and the smell of the taiga.” It is made in the form of a drilling derrick, at the top of which a gas torch flutters.
The more ancient history of the city is told by the architectural complex “Obdorsk fort” (Obdorsk is the former name of Salekhard), reproducing the appearance of an outpost of the Russian state in the Obdorsk region in the 17th century. It was opened several years ago on a historical site at the confluence of the Poluy and Ob rivers. “Obdorsky fort” is also considered a monument of Russian wooden architecture. The small fortress is a rather cozy and, if I may say so, friendly building. It is reminiscent of old Salekhard with its cute low wooden houses and carved shutters.
Monument to the mammoth
Near the Ob River, next to the ferry crossing that connects Salekhard and Labytnangi, a huge monument rises. The 10-meter-high monument can be seen from any part of the river. The figure of an extinct animal stands on a hillock. The place for it was chosen specifically so that the mammoth “Mitya” would be visible from a great distance.
In the stylized sculpture, the animal looks relaxed and good-natured. Its trunk hangs down, and its giant white fangs threaten no one. The original monument on the Ob bank appeared in the summer of 2005 and since then has turned into one of the iconic landmarks of Salekhard. His photo is easy to find in any city guide.
Many thousands of years ago, mammoths actually lived in the vicinity of Salekhard. “Mitya” symbolizes the animal that paleontologists dug up near the city. How old is he? Scientists suggest that it is a little less than ten thousand. The furry giants were classified as “polar mammoths.” To make it more convenient to break through high drifts of snow, they had closely spaced tusks.
All tourists try to take a memorable photo near Mitya. The hillock where the monument is erected is carefully looked after.
Surreal tundra
Imagine: tundra, silence, emptiness, endless space to the very horizon... And suddenly you notice rusted pieces of barbed wire and twisted rails leading to nowhere. It feels like you are in some kind of science fiction film. Where do the rails and wreckage of steam locomotives come from in the deserted, swampy tundra?!
All these are the remains of the so-called “dead road”, the unfinished construction of the Salekhard-Igarka railway. The road was built by prisoners in the 1940s and 1950s.
The construction of a railway along the Arctic Circle is now considered one of the most ambitious projects of the Gulag. An abandoned railway stretches like a narrow snake through the endless swamps of the West Siberian Lowland, through low-growing polar forests and tundra for hundreds of kilometers. The desolation of these places contributed to the fact that the “dead road” and everything that was once connected with it remained almost untouched.
The many years of work of the builders in inhumane conditions were in vain - the construction remained unfinished. However, in the strategic documents for the development of transport in Russia, the project of railway communication between the north of the Tyumen region and Igarka has not yet been erased from the old maps.
Many compare the “dead road” with the “zone” from Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker”. She also has a special appeal, mystery and natural waywardness.
Local color
Since ancient times, Yamal was inhabited by the Khanty, Nenets, Selkup, Komi - northern peoples who even today lead a nomadic lifestyle and preserve many traditions of the past. You can learn about their features by visiting the museum and exhibition complex named after I. S. Shemanovsky.
But it is much more interesting to visit an open-air museum - a natural and ethnographic complex. It is located in Gornoknyazevsk, 12 kilometers from Salekhard (15-20 minutes by car).
At the entrance to the museum grounds there is a birch tree, and a little further there is a larch tree. The first tree is sacred to the Komi and Khanty peoples, and the second is revered by the Nenets. Both trees are full of colorful ribbons and handkerchiefs - according to local beliefs, anyone who leaves a ribbon and a small souvenir can ask God for a blessing for their family.
Coming here, it’s as if you find yourself in a camp of real tents - the dwellings of the nomadic peoples of Yamal. You can go inside, look at the internal structure of the tent, sit on reindeer skins, and touch various utensils. You can even try on a yagushka (a woman’s fur coat) or throw a luxurious polar wolf skin over your shoulders, and take a closer look at a wonderful woman’s bag. These bags are simply gorgeous - made from smooth, shiny reindeer fur, decorated with bright Nenets patterns, and trimmed with fluffy white fox.
On the territory of the complex, deer are kept in a small corral. They have long been accustomed to tourists, they allow themselves to be petted and, according to the museum staff, “they have become awks,” i.e. tame deer. Here you can sit on a sledge (sleigh into which reindeer are harnessed), and hold a hunting bow in your hands.
The museum offers an extensive program: thematic excursions, fishing, reindeer sledding and snowmobiling, participation in ritual holidays, local delicacies. And in winter you can see an exhibition of ice sculptures.
Fortress "Obdorsky fortress"
In 2006, at the confluence of the Poluy and Ob, local enthusiasts and builders created an exact copy of the ancient Obdorsk fortress. Today it is one of the main attractions of Salekhard. All tourists go to take photos of the wooden city, so many guests come to the Solnechny microdistrict.
It is curious that the Cossack fort was built using ancient technologies without a single nail. It combines watchtowers, the governor's house, a forge, a wooden church with a bell tower and a monument to the founders of Obdorsk.
Modern buildings are surrounded by a high palisade. From the western part of the fortress wall, the spurs of the Polar Urals are visible in the distance. In the summer, in clear weather, you can even notice unmelting patches of snowfields on the mountain slopes.
The doors of the wooden fortress are open to guests all year round. Holidays, master classes, New Year trees and Cossack games are held on its territory. Do you want to learn the basics of blacksmithing or buy a memorable souvenir? Then don’t forget to include in your travel plan around the city an unusual open-air museum – “Obdorsky Fortress”!
Here you can buy tickets for traveling to the north of our country to the city of Salekhard
