Acquaint you with the most wonders of our country and those wonderful places that everyone should know Rossiyanin. Election of seven “wonders of the country” took place through SMS and Internet voting. It was finally selected 49 wonders of the 7 federal districts of Russia (on the 7 wonders of each federal district)

The Valley of Geysers in the Kamchatka region

The Valley of Geysers is the only geyser field in Eurasia – apart from the Mutnovsky geyser field - and the second largest concentration of geysers in the world. This 6 km long basin with approximately ninety geysers and many hot springs is situated on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, predominantly on the left bank of the ever-deepening Geysernaya River, into which geothermal waters flow from a relatively young stratovolcano, Kikhpinych. Temperatures have been found to be 250 °C, 500 m below the caldera ground. It is part of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, which, in turn, is incorporated into the World Heritage Site “Volcanoes of Kamchatka”. The valley is difficult to reach, with helicopters providing the only feasible means of transport.

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is the world’s second most voluminous lake, after the Caspian Sea. It is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world with an average depth of 744.4 m (2,442 ft) and contains a total of roughly 20 percent of the world’s surface fresh water. Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia (between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, near the city of Irkutsk), the body of water is also known as the “Pearl of Siberia”.Lake Baikal is the deepest, and among the clearest of all lakes in the world. At more than 25 million years old, Baikal is also the world’s oldest lake. Like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal was formed as an ancient rift valley, having the typical long crescent shape with a surface area of 31,722 km2/12,248 sq mi, less than that of Lake Superior or Lake Victoria. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is also home to Buryat tribes who reside on the eastern side of Lake Baikal, rearing goat, camel, cattle and sheep,where the regional temperature varies from a minimum of -17°C in winter to maximum of 14°C in summer.

The complex of palaces in Peterhof

Peterhof is a municipal town within Petrodvortsovy District of the federal city of Saint Petersburg on the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland . It hosts one of two campuses of Saint Petersburg State University. A series of palaces and gardens, laid out on the orders of Peter the Great, and sometimes called the “Russian Versailles”, is also situated there. The palace-ensemble along with the city center is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The dominant natural feature of Peterhof is a sixteen-metre-high bluff lying less than a hundred metres from the shore. The so-called Lower Gardens, at 1.02 km² comprising the better part of Peterhof’s land area, are confined between this bluff and the shore, stretching east and west for roughly 200 metres. The majority of Peterhof’s fountains are contained here, as are several small palaces and outbuildings. East of the Lower Gardens lies the Alexandria Park with 19th-century Gothic Revival structures such as the Kapella.

Columns of Erosion in the Komi Republic

Arrange in the Troitsko-Pecherskiy area, in the Komi Republic, the Columns of Erosion, or Manpupuner as they’re acknowledged in Russia are among the country’s most cryptic attracters. The “7 Strong Men” as the locals call it are 7 monolithic rock columns breaking open of a flat tableland. Their height, that reaches 42 meters, and their abnormal anatomies make them unaccessible to even the most felt cragsmen.

Not much is known about these mysterious “7 Strong Men” and on an international level they are virtually unknown. Although very hard to reach and set in a harsh environment, Manpupuner offers a great sight to its visitors. Many say that while there you feel no need of water, food or rest, all you want to do is stare at these masterpieces of nature, where locals say spirits used to gather in ancient times.

Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow

The Cathedral of Intercession of Theotokos on the Moat is a Russian Orthodox cathedral erected on the Red Square in Moscow in 1555–1561. Built on the order of Ivan IV of Russia to commemorate the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan, it marks the geometric center of the city and the hub of its growth since the 14th century. It was the tallest building of Moscow until the completion of the Ivan the Great Bell Tower in 1600.

The original building, known as Trinity Church and later Trinity Cathedral, contained eight side churches arranged around the ninth, central church of Intercession; the tenth church was erected in 1588 over the grave of venerated local Fool Vasily (Basil). In the 16th and the 17th centuries the cathedral, perceived as the earthly symbol of the Heavenly City, was popularly known as the Jerusalem and served as an allegory of the Jerusalem Temple in the annual Palm Sunday parade attended by the Patriarch of Moscow and the tsar

Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Statue of Motherland

The Motherland, or The Mamayev Monument, is a statue in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad. The repetitive wording in the title “Mother Motherland” does not exist in Russian: the word for “Motherland”, “??????”, is derived from “birth” and can be literally translated as “birth place”.

When the memorial was dedicated in 1967 it was the tallest sculpture in the world, measuring 85 metres (279 feet) from the tip of its sword to the top of the plinth. The figure itself measures 52 metres (170 feet), and the sword 33 metres (108 feet). Two hundred steps, symbolizing the 200 days of the Battle of Stalingrad, lead from the bottom of the hill to the monument. The lead sculptor was Yevgeny Vuchetich (a famous Russian sculptor of Serbian descent), and the significant structural engineering challenges of the 7,900 tonnes (7,800 LT; 8,700 ST) of concrete[1] sculpture were handled by Nikolai Nikitin. The statue appears on both the current flag and coat of arms of Volgograd Oblast.

Mount Elbrus

Mount Elbrus is an inactive volcano located in the western Caucasus mountain range, in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia, near the border of Georgia. Mt. Elbrus’s highest peak is the highest mountain in the Caucasus, in Russia, and in all of Europe. Mt. Elbrus (west summit) stands at 5,642 metres (18,510 ft); the east summit is slightly lower at 5,621 metres (18,442 ft).

The ancients knew the mountain as Strobilus, Latin for ‘pine cone’, a direct loan from the ancient Greek strobilos, meaning ‘a twisted object’ — a long established botanical term that describes the shape of the volcano’s summit. Myth held that here Zeus had chained Prometheus, the Titan who had stolen fire from the gods and given it to ancient man — likely a reference to historic volcanic activity.

Check more Daily News