100 Places To Remember: Altai Mountains, Russia
Geschreven op 17-2-2010 - Erik van Erne. Geplaatst in Natuur
The Frozen Past of the Golden Mountains. In the Altai Mountains in Central Asia, 20-metre-tall burial mounds (kurgans) extend along the southern Siberian steppe. The worlds only frozen tombs, the kurgans have been preserved in their original condition by permafrost, bearing witness to the Scythian tribes, a nomadic, horse-riding people who dominated the Eurasian steppes during the first millennium BC.
The Altai Mountains rise where Russia, Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan converge. The Russian section of the mountain range is on UNESCOs World Heritage List because of its diverse vegetation, which varies from steppe to mixed forest to alpine vegetation. Altai means golden mountain an apt name given the priceless nature and culture of the region.
Occupying lands stretching from the Black Sea to the Mongolian Plain, the Scythians were herdsmen and warriors, fighting rival tribes with barbed, poisoned arrows. Women, probably young and unmarried, fought alongside the men and dressed in similar clothes.
Examinations of the kurgan tombs have revealed gold artefacts, weapons, animal (and sometimes human) sacrifices, all in perfect condition. Even organic material such as silk, wool and leather has survived intact, along with mummified human bodies. In one kurgan, archaeologists discovered the beautifully tattooed corpse of a woman wearing a silk blouse, who was later given the name The Ice Maiden.
The key to Scythian culture lies in the frozen tombs of the Golden Mountains. Many of the kurgans are located in an area where the permafrost is inconstant, making them extremely vulnerable to rising temperatures. In the last 100 years, temperatures have risen by between 1°C and 2°C and a significant reduction of the permafrost is predicted to take place in the middle of this century. As the permafrost melts away, so too will a unique natural habitat and its distinctive cultural heritage.
