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Solovetsky Archipelago (Solovki). Big Solovetsky Island

In 2002, Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of an artificial origin of Sekirnaya Gora. Although the elevation is based on glacial deposits, there is reason to believe that it is indeed supplemented from above by mounds of artificial origin.

View of the Sekirnaya mountain. At the top of it stands an Orthodox church. There are no other high mountains on Solovki

The highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago is Sekirnaya (its second name is Chudova Gora). The name "Sekirnaya" is associated with a legend about a miracle that happened here: two angels at the foot of the mountain flogged the wife of a Pomor, who on the Solovetsky Islands fished and mowed hay, but did not allow the monks to do it. From the word "sekli" supposedly comes the name.

The name of Mount Sekirnaya should have come not from the word "cut", but from - "ax" (medieval battle ax). It turns out that the angels were supposed to kill the Pomor's wife not with vices, but with battle axes.

- You are a supporter of the version of the artificial origin of the Sekirnaya Mountain. Why?

The islands of the Solovetsky archipelago are flat, as if ironed by a glacier. High mountains look like artificial formations on them. On the Big Solovetsky Island, Sekirnaya (or Sekirka) is the highest mountain, its height is almost 100 meters. Huge sand and stone mounds of the Solovetsky Mountains were first described by local historians in the 30s of the twentieth century.

But scientists could not explain where such a high mountain could appear on the flat islands. It was assumed that Sekirka was partly created by a glacier and partly a pyramid of boulders, which was built several millennia ago by ancient people who inhabited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea.

If the ancient Solovetsky mountain is a pyramid, where does it get its original Russian name from? Why did the monks need such a strange legend about angels?

There are doubts that the name of the mountain was originally Slavic. After all, the word "Solovki", although consonant with "nightingales", has nothing to do with them: nightingales have never been found beyond the Arctic Circle. The monks used the legend of angels as "proof" that the Solovetsky Island should belong to the monastery, and not to the indigenous people.

In fact, archaeologists have confirmed that the Solovetsky archipelago belonged to the inhabitants of the White Sea region thousands of years before the arrival of the first monks. Novgorodians called these White Sea tribes "chudya", and the local peoples, the Nenets, - "sikirtya".

- What does the name of the people "Sikhirtya" mean, what did it have to do with pyramid mounds?

The mention of the Sikitra people is found in the Tale of Bygone Years. Translated from the ancient language, "skhrt" or "skrd" is an artificial embankment of an elongated shape. The word "stack" has the same root. Mow - an artificial hay mountain of an elongated shape.

But a stack can be not only made of hay, so a version arose that a "skhrt" is a form of a primitive bulk prehistoric dwelling, like a giant stack of grass, moss and branches, in which our ancient ancestors lived. The same ancient root stem "skrt" is in the word "hide". After all, the main function of the home is to hide from the cold and wild animals. People who lived in such primitive dwellings were called skitniks, and in the north - sikirtya.

The first chronicle information of the Novgorodians about the Donenetsk cave population in the north (the Nenets came to the territory of the Pechora tundra from behind the Ural Range only in the 13th-14th centuries) confirms that the tribes living there did not know iron and lived in caves.

But in the flat Pechora tundra there are practically no mountains in which such caves can be found today, and even so that cavemen could live in them ...

Such "mountains" of the ancient cave people could only be artificial mounds-dwellings - huge stacks of peat and moss. Then it is clear why after a thousand years there was practically nothing left of them - they turned into ordinary small hills among the flat landscape of the tundra. Periodically, archaeologists find traces of the Donets civilization in the tundra - bronze and stone tools, jewelry.

-And there are no traces of the dwellings of the Sikitra people?

Remained: back in the 19th century, Academician Lepekhin wrote: “The entire Samoyed land in the current Mezen district is filled with derelict dwellings of a certain people. They are found in many places, near lakes on the tundra and in forests near rivers, made in mountains and hills like caves with beast.

Furnaces are found in these caves and fragments of iron, copper and clay household items are found." .

Thus, the stone mountains on Solovki are nothing but monuments of an ancient civilization. Our researchers have a lot of work to study the history hidden in the earth.

Anatoly RUKSHA

"Courier of the White Sea" 19(166)

Back in 2002, Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of an artificial origin of Sekirnaya Mountain - the one located on the Solovetsky Archipelago. Although the elevation is based on glacial deposits, there is every reason to believe that from above it is indeed supplemented by mounds of artificial origin, that is, all this is the work of human hands.

About hills and knolls

It's no secret that on the numerous islands and islets of the Solovetsky archipelago there are hills and mountains of absolutely different heights. So, Sekirnaya Gora is perhaps the highest mountain on the entire Bolshoi Solovetsky Island. This mountain has another, more euphonious name - Miracle Mountain.

Nevertheless, let's return to a more established name - Sekirnaya. So, it was named in memory of the angels. The essence of the myth is that once the angels descended from heaven and whipped the wife of a fisherman, the wife of a Pomor. According to legend, Saints Savvaty and Herman lived and lived near this, apparently still nameless mountain.

In summer, fishermen with their wives sailed to the foot. The husbands, as expected, fished, but the wives mowed the grass, and ran the household. Why the Pomors disliked Saints Savvaty and Herman, history is silent. That's just a conflict broke out between them and the fishermen. I repeat that it was in ancient times and, as is often the case in the myths of any nation, heavenly forces intervened in the situation - in our case, angels in the form of blond youths.

The latter took and flogged one of the fishermen's wives with rods, and ordered to reel in the fishing rods for good and for health. And that, they say, this island with a mountain in addition belongs to the monks for prayers ... It was not possible to argue with the angels, so the fishermen left this island and henceforth began to treat the saints with respect.

Ancient people tried

This is where questions arise related to the name of this mountain. Judging by the legend, the name "Sekirnaya" allegedly comes not from the word "cut", but from "ax" - the name of a medieval battle ax. It turns out that the angels were supposed to strike the Pomor's wife to death not with vices, but with battle axes. Somehow it turns out tough, especially for angels.

It is known that the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago are flat, as if ironed by a glacier. High mountains look somehow strange on them, as if they are artificial formations. On the Big Solovetsky Island, Sekirnaya (or Sekirka) is the highest mountain, its height is almost one hundred meters. Where does she get on this kind of plateau?

It should be noted that the huge sand and stone mounds of the Solovetsky Mountains were first described by local historians in the 30s of the last century. But scientists then could not explain where such a high mountain could appear on the flat islands. It was assumed that Sekirka was partly created by a glacier and partly a pyramid of boulders, which was built several millennia ago by ancient people who inhabited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea.

In 2002, Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of an artificial origin of Sekirnaya Gora. Although the elevation is based on glacial deposits, and there is reason to believe that from above it is indeed supplemented by mounds of artificial origin.

Nightingales do not sing on Solovki

Of course, the question arises: if the ancient Solovetsky mountain is a pyramid, where does it get its original Russian name from? And why did the monks need such a strange legend about angels? In fact, there are doubts that the name of the mountain was originally Slavic. After all, the word "Solovki", although consonant with "nightingales", has nothing to do with them - nightingales have never been found beyond the Arctic Circle.

Well, the monks used the legend of angels as proof that the Solovetsky Island should belong to the monastery, and not to the indigenous people. In addition, archaeologists have confirmed that the Solovetsky archipelago belonged to the inhabitants of the White Sea region thousands of years before the arrival of the first monks. Novgorodians called these White Sea tribes “chud”, and rooted local Nenets - “sikirtya”.

Moss mow

The mention of the Sikitra people is found in the Tale of Bygone Years. Translated from the ancient language, “skhrt” or “skrd” is an artificial mound of an elongated shape. The word "stack" has the same root. Mow - an artificial hay mound of elongated shape. But a stack can be not only made of hay, so a version arose that a “skhrt” is a form of a primitive bulk prehistoric dwelling, like a giant stack of grass, moss and branches, in which our ancient ancestors lived.

The same ancient root stem "skrt" is in the word "hide". After all, the main function of the home is to hide from the cold and wild animals. People who lived in such primitive dwellings were called skitniks, and in the North - sikirtya.

Cave people

But the question reasonably arises that in the flat Pechora tundra there are practically no mountains in which such caves can be found today, and even so that cave people could live in them. Perhaps such "mountains" of the ancient cave people could only be artificial mounds-dwellings - huge stacks of peat and moss.

Only then it becomes clear why, after a thousand years, there was practically nothing left of them - they turned into ordinary small hills among the flat landscape of the tundra. By the way, archaeologists periodically find traces of the Donets civilization in the tundra - bronze and stone tools, jewelry.

It is worth saying that traces of the dwellings of the Sikitra people also remained. Back in the 19th century, academician Lepekhin wrote: “The entire Samoyed land in the current Mezen district is filled with derelict dwellings of a certain people. They are found in many places, near lakes on the tundra and in forests near rivers, made in the mountains and hills like caves with holes by a similar beast. In these caves, furnaces are found and fragments of iron, copper and clay household items are found.

As for the stone bulk mountains, like Sekirnaya, these are no longer houses made of peat and moss for living people, but the houses of the dead - pyramids made of stones. Thus, the stone mountains on Solovki are nothing but monuments of an ancient civilization. Our researchers have a lot of work to study the history hidden in the earth.

Many mysteries of Egypt are still not solved. Our northern land also keeps many secrets associated with ... the pyramids

The name of the highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago, Sekirnaya (its second name is Chudova Gora), is usually associated with the legend of a miracle that happened here - two angels at its foot carved the wife of a local coast-dweller who fished and mowed hay on the Solovetsky Islands. From the word "sekli" supposedly comes the name.

man-made mountain

You are one of the supporters of the version of the artificial origin of Sekirnaya Gora, how do you justify this?

It is no secret that the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago are flat, as if they were ironed by a glacier, so the high mountains look like artificial formations on them. The highest point on Bolshoi Solovetsky Island is Mount Sekirnaya (or Sikirnaya, Sikirka), almost 100 meters high. Huge sand and stone mounds of the Solovetsky mountains were first described by the Solovetsky Society of Local Lore Studies only in the 30s of the twentieth century. But scientists then could not convincingly explain where such a high mountain could appear on flat islands among plains, swamps and small hills. Even then, scientists assumed that the highest mountain of the Solovetsky archipelago, Sekirnaya, was partly created by a glacier, and partly a pyramid of boulders, built several millennia ago by ancient people who inhabited the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea.

In August 2002, geological and geomorphological studies by Russian scientists confirmed the possibility of the artificial origin of Sikirka. Although the elevation itself (the base of the pyramid) was formed by glacial deposits, there is reason to say that from above it was indeed supplemented by mounds of artificial origin.

Look at the root

Ivan Ivanovich, but where does the original Russian name for the ancient Solovetsky mountain come from, if it is an ancient pyramid? And why did the monks need such a strange legend about angels?

There are big doubts that the name of the mountain in general was originally Russian, Slavic. After all, the toponym Solovki itself, despite the consonance of this name with the Russian word "nightingales", has nothing to do with these birds, which have never been found here, beyond the Arctic Circle. And the legend of the angels, who supposedly drove the local fishermen from Solovki, has been used by monks for centuries as an indisputable "proof" that the Solovetsky Island should belong to the monastery, and not to the indigenous people. However, archaeological evidence suggests that the Solovetsky Archipelago, thousands of years before the arrival of the first monks, belonged to the inhabitants of the White Sea region and served them as a sanctuary for performing ancient religious rites. The Novogorodtsy called these White Sea tribes of the arch-Pomors the Chud, and the local peoples, for example, the Nenets, called the word Sikirtya.

But how to prove that Mount Sekirnaya comes from a non-Slavic root and is associated with the Sikirt or Chud people?

If the name of the mountain Si-kirnaya (Sikirka, Chudova) is of pre-Slavic origin, then on the map of Pomorye one should look for a toponymic series of consonant mountain names. And we really do find it: at the mouth of the Pomeranian river Korotaikha, we find Mount Sikhirtesya (translated from the Nenets - the mountain of the Sikirtya people). And on the western coast of the island of Vaigach we find the high cape Sikirtesale (in translation - cape sikirtya). Moreover, on all these mountains, archaeological evidence has been found that they served as ancient sanctuaries. Thus, the Solovetsky mountain Sikirka, apparently from the same toponymic series, is one of the sacred mountains of the ancient people of the Sikirtya (Chudi). By the way, the mentioned sacred mountain at the mouth of the Korotaikha River, Sikhirtesya, as well as the Solovetsky mountain Sekirnaya, has a second historical name - Miracle Mountain! It is unlikely that such a toponymic coincidence can be accidental.

A bygone civilization is near

What does the name of the people Sihirtya mean? And what did this people have to do with pyramid mounds?

The answer to this is given by the ancient Indo-European root stems, consisting of consonant sounds skhrt (skrd, skrt), which, in a comparative semantic analysis, reveal much in common. In fact, skhrt or skrd in translation from the ancient proto-language means "an artificial mound of elongated shape." For example, this root is still found today in such a well-known word as a stack. So, a stack of hay - literally means an artificially created mountain of hay, which has an elongated shape. But a stack can be not only made of hay.

Based on the linguistic analysis, a version arose that "shrt" is a form of a primitive bulk prehistoric dwelling, like a giant stack of grass, moss and branches in which our ancient ancestors lived. I would also like to draw attention to the fact that the same ancient root base "skrt" is contained in the word "hide", which corresponds to the purpose of the structure, because the main function of the dwelling is to hide from the cold or wild animals. The same ancient basis "skrt" is also in the Latin word "secret", which is equivalent to the word to hide. The terms with the same root base, despite the reduced letter "p", obviously include the word for the primitive dwelling "skit". People who lived in such primitive dwellings were called skitniks, and in the north they were called sikirtya (skhirtya, siirte).

It is curious that the first chronicle information of the Novgorodians about the Donenetsk cave population in the north (the Nenets came to the territory of the Pechora tundra from behind the Ural Range only in the 13-14th centuries) indicates that the tribes living there did not know iron and lived in caves. By the way, the Novgorodians themselves were brought to this northern people of fishermen and hunters of wild deer and sea animals (apparently, the ancestors of the current Mezen and Kanin Pomors) were brought by representatives of other Finno-Finnish tribes of Ugra and Samoyeds who disappeared today. The name Pechora suggests that they really were cave people.

My house is my pyramid

But in the flat Pechora tundra there are practically no mountains in which today you can find such caves, and even so that cavemen could live in them ...

You are right: such "mountains" of the ancient cave people could only be artificial mounds-dwellings - huge stacks of peat and moss. In this case, it is understandable why, after a thousand years, there was practically nothing left of such dwellings and the "caves" dug in them - they turned into ordinary, not very large hills among the flat landscape of the tundra. But surely there are archeological artifacts preserved in the land of these hills. And periodically, archaeologists find traces of the Donets civilization in the tundra - bronze and stone tools, jewelry.

What is the Novgorod chronicle and what exactly does it write about the Sikirt people, who lived in such bulk houses-stacks?

This description can be found in The Tale of Bygone Years, in its Lavrentian list, where there is a story by the Novgorod boyar Gyurata Rogovich, whose youth went to Ugra and Samoyed in the 11th century. I will quote him almost verbatim: “The Ugra tribe told my youth about a miracle, which they themselves heard only three years ago: near the sea bays there are huge mountains, almost to the sky. ". And in that mountain a small window was cut through for negotiations. They do not understand the language and explain with gestures that they need iron. And those who give them a knife or an ax, they pay with skins."

Are there no traces of the dwellings of this cave people left?

Traces, of course, remained: back in the century before last, Academician I.I. Lepekhin wrote: “The entire Samoyed land in the current Mezen district is filled with deserted dwellings of a certain people. They are found in many places, near lakes on the tundra and in forests by rivers, made in mountains and hills like caves with holes by a similar beast. In these caves they find furnaces and find fragments of iron, copper and clay household items.

As for the stone artificial mountains, like Sekirnaya (the big Solovetsky Island), Sikirtesale (on the western coast of the Vaigach Island), the Sikhirtesya Mountains (at the mouth of the Korotaikhi River) - these are no longer those residential buildings made of peat and moss, intended for living people, and the houses of the dead, pyramids made of stones.

Thus, these stone mountains "stacks" are monuments of the ancient civilization of the early protopomors, who thousands of years ago mastered the expanses of the ancient Arctic long before the arrival of the current indigenous inhabitants of the North. And our researchers still have a lot of work to do to study this history hidden in the earth.

Solovetsky Islands and their area

Bolshoi Solovetsky Island is the largest triangular island in the archipelago. Its southern part is already northern and ends with a sharp cape. On the western, eastern and northern shores there are bays deeply protruding into the territory. The distance between the most remote southern and northern points of the island is 24.7 km, and the western and eastern one is 15.8 km. Big Solovetsky Island (246.9 sq. km) surpasses the other five islands of the archipelago: the area of Anzer Island is 24 sq. km. km, Big Muksalma - 17.6, Big Zayatsky - 1.25, Small Zayatsky - 1.02, Malaya Muksalma - 0.57 sq. km. ( Boguslavsky Gustav. Solovetsky Islands: Essays. )

Big Solovetsky Island

"The formation of the modern relief of the Big Solovetsky Island occurred under the influence of the glacier and the subsequent processes of weathering and erosion. The area of the archipelago was subjected to glaciation twice. The first period of glaciation (Dneprovsk) and the second period (Valdai or otherwise Wurm) are separated by a time interval when the glacier retreated, causing significant climate change.

Breeds. The islands rest on a solid foundation of gneiss-granite bedrock. Rocks almost never come to the surface. The glacier covered the bedrock of the Solovetsky Islands with a significant layer of crystalline "moraine" deposits. There are many boulders on the islands, gneisses predominate, there are few granites and shales, there are almost no sedimentary rocks. Often boulders lie in powerful ridges on the slopes of hills. Among the moraine deposits, there are moraine clays, "ram's foreheads". There is a lot of sand on the islands - a product of the mechanical destruction of crystalline rocks.

The soil of the islands has a sandy base and lacks nutrients. There are few outcrops of moraine rock on the islands and the soil layer is insignificant in thickness (average value 0.2-0.25 m, often 0.05 m and extremely rarely 0.4-0.6 m). The main soil complexes on the islands are podzolic, transitional from podzolic to semi-bog, semi-bog, transitional from semi-bog to marsh, marsh and peat bogs.

The relief of the islands is uneven with small descents and ascents, numerous lake basins. There are no significant elevations. There are three relief zones on the Big Solovetsky Island:

The central zone of the island with a hilly-elevated landscape and a system of lakes;
the southern zone is a depression surrounded by hills with peat bogs and overgrown lakes and
coast zone.

The relief of the Solovetsky Island (the direction of the hills and lake basins) coincides with the direction of the glacier movement (from north-north-west to south-south-east). The whole island is stretched in this direction.

The mountains. The highest point of the archipelago is Mount Golgotha on Anzer Island (200 m). The highest point on Bolshoi Solovetsky Island is Mount Sekirnaya (its absolute height is 95.5 m; its relative height is 71 m). Sekirnaya Mountain, Golgotha and the mountains on the islands are formed by glacial deposits. On the Bolshoi Solovetsky O. there are hills and ridges (25-60 m), traditionally called "mountains". They stretch in ridges of hills with gentle slopes. All the mountains are located in the central part of the island: the sloping Khlebnye Mountains go to the east of the monastery, the Valdai Mountains to the north-west, and further to the north a chain of Setny, Gremyachy and Volchiy mountains. There are elevations on the way to the village of Rebolda and on the northwestern tip of the island, near the village of Treschanka. Mount Tabor rises in the southeastern part of Muksalma Island.

The swamps (forest and meadow, "upland") of Solovki are lakes in the latest stage of overgrowth. Bogs occupy a significant part of the area of Anzersky Island (20% or 630 ha) and 460 ha of Bolshaya Muksalma (almost the entire eastern part of the island is marshy). There are no swamps on the Zayatsky Islands. On the Bolshoy Solovetsky swamps are located in the southern (Pechakskoye and Berezovo - Topskoye), northeastern (Filimonovskoye and Gorodokskoye) and eastern parts of the island. In the central and western part of the island lies the Kulikovo swamp and a few and small "mountain bogs" near the lakes, fed by atmospheric precipitation.

Peat bogs are located in the eastern and southern parts of Bolshoi Solovetsky O. (near Gryaznaya Bay, in the area of Bolshoy and Maly Kamennye and Bolshoy Peat Lakes on the road to Muksalma, in the Lopsky Lakes region along the Berezovskaya road, near Cape Pechak and on Bolshaya Muksalma in the area of Mt. Favor). Estimated peat reserves are more than 80 million tons. There is no industrial extraction of peat.

The coastline is a special physical-geographical zone. An open coastal strip stretches along the entire perimeter of the islands of the Solovetsky archipelago. The area of the coastal zone is comparable to the area of the islands: for example, on Anzer it reaches 926 hectares or 38% of the area. The circumference of the Bolshoy Solovetsky Island is 110 km, but due to the strongly indented coasts, capes, bays and the peninsula, the coastline is twice as long ~ 200 km. The shores are composed of loose sandy-stony rocks, dotted with boulders with rarely growing grass. The coastal strip is limited by the forest, coming almost to the water itself or receding by 0.1-0.2 km.

Coastal shoals and stone pools go towards the sea for considerable distances. Coastal depths are small: to the west and east the sea reaches 10 m of depth only 1.8 - 2.0 km from the coast, and in the north and south - 4 km; further the depths increase and in the northern and eastern directions for 5-6 km from the coast they already reach 30-50 m.

The "growth" of the Solovetsky Islands was first estimated in 1889 at 120 centimeters per century. More accurate data indicate an increase of about 17 centimeters per century.

Ebb and flow. Twice a day, the waters come on the coast of the islands, approaching the forest itself. The tide puts a continuous ribbon of algae on the shore. Twice the tide reveals thousands of orange-red boulders lying in the sea at a shallow depth. High tide and low tide last 6 hours 12 minutes (the daily cycle - two high tides and two low tides - is equal to 24 hours 47 minutes), while the period of low water is usually close to noon and midnight. The difference between low and high water in the region of the islands is on average 0.4 and 1.8 m, respectively (extreme values are 0.3 and 2.0 m). The difference between high and low water in Deep Bay is 1.25 m, and through the Iron Gate Strait, which connects the bay with the sea, up to 700 tons of water per second passes during high and low tide.

Sea bays (bays) are diverse: the Glubokaya Bay juts out into the shore of the Bolshoy Solovetsky O. from the east. Its area is 12.8 sq. km.; the depth in some places reaches 150 meters. There are many islands in the bay, its banks are strongly indented. Deep Bay is a one-of-a-kind sea bay with a cold-water zone and Arctic fauna at depths of 12-14 m.

Harbor "Bay of Prosperity". The main bay of the Archipelago is the Bay of Prosperity, on the banks of which stands the Solovetsky Kremlin. It is deepened into the shore for 2 km, forming a harbor with an area of about 6.4 square meters. km. The Bay of Prosperity is the best harbor in this area of the White Sea. The harbor is sheltered from most winds and is accessible to the west and southwest winds. The depth of the harbor is 11-45 m in the roadstead between Pesya Luda and Senny Ludy. In the harbor itself 2.0-2.5 m (southern part), 4.0-5.5 m (northern part) up to the pier itself (in low water). The bottom is sandy, with small stones, suitable for large ships.

The shore of the bay is heavily indented with small bays and a dozen capes. The bay is littered with luds and corgs. Islands in the Bay - Sailing; Hay (four), Petropavlovsky, Cross, Igumensky, Beluga, Big and Small Topa, Grassy; Pesya, Voronya and Babia Ludy; Alexandrovskie, Ershov, Voronii, Nameless Corgi. The water of the bay is clean and transparent, visibility is up to 5 m. ( Boguslavsky Gustav. Solovetsky Islands: Essays. 3rd ed. Arkhangelsk; North-West book. publishing house, 1978. - 173 p.: ill.)

Anzersky Island (Anzer)

The length of the island is about 17 kilometers, the width is 7.5 km in the western part, it narrows to the east. The area is 35 square kilometers. There are numerous lips, the narrowest large ones are Troitskaya and Kaporskaya, Kirillovskaya is wide with a sandy shore and dunes. The landscape is very reminiscent of Bolshoy Solovetsky Island: many hills overgrown with dense forests, which alternate with deep lake basins.

Anzer Island under the name "Vanzer" is mentioned in the middle of the 15th century, in the first Novgorod letters to the Solovetsky Monastery. In the first quarter of the 17th century, the Monk Eleazar of Anzersky founded a small monastery - the Anzersky skete. In 1634, priest Nikita, the future Patriarch Nikon, took monastic vows on Anzero and played a prominent role in the history of Russia. The Monk Job, the former confessor of Emperor Peter the Great, founded in 1712 a small skete with a monstrously strict charter.

Big Muksalma Island

Bolshaya Muksalma Island measures 6.2 by 3.7 kilometers. The surface is uneven, but there are no significant depressions. There are no lakes. In the southeastern part of the island, the main part of which is swampy, there are two mountains (the higher one is called "Favor"). The soil is sandy and rocky. There are no forests like those that cover the Solovetsky Island and Anzer. Most of the island is undergrowth. Extensive pastures with fine grass. Here, in the area of the Sergievsky skete, there was a barnyard. V. Nemirovich-Danchenko, who visited Solovki in 1872, wrote with enthusiastic surprise about the local barnyard poultry house, the stables and the dairy farm: he spoke about the "Dutch cleanliness" of all premises, about the stocks of first-class dairy products stored in the glacier, about the rational setting the entire dairy industry. During the existence of the SLON (1923), a livestock farm was organized on Muksalma, which let all the monastic labors go to the wind and successfully destroyed the former premises of the monastery farm, including the legendary stable with a hayloft (1906) and designed for 27 horses.

At present, the Muksalm settlement is a group of ruins scattered in the meadow. Here are the remains of a two-story stone house, a wooden house, a barnyard building and the remains of several other old buildings. Previously, Muksalma had a wooden chapel and a one-story stone St. Sergius Church. After the invasion of the communists, only ruins remained.

From the village the road goes to the eastern part of the island through the undergrowth to Mount Tabor.

Big and Small Zayatsky Islands (Hares)

Big Zayatsky, Small Zayatsky Islands or Hares, Bunnies (local). They are located from Cape Pechak 2.5 km to the northwest; from the Bay of Prosperity 30-50 minutes by boat to the south. Area: B. Zayatsky - 1.25 sq. km, M. Zayatsky - 1.02 sq. km. km. A low strip of land with slight rises. Forests occupy 65-70% and 55-60% of the land (small forests, almost no or small conifers). Open coast - up to 30% of the area of the islands (about 40 hectares on Bolshaya Zayatsky Island). The landscape is subpolar, closer to the tundra (moss litter, shrubs, weak forest, rocky soil). There are no lakes or swamps. Previously, there may have been lakes or marshes, but now only three oval-shaped peatlands are visible. The main element of the landscape is a stone in the form of boulders of various shapes and sizes. The coastline is heavily indented, up to 15 km near the island. B. Zayatsky. The coast is gently sloping, in some places terraces. Coastal strip with shrubs, but in the northeast and east of the island there are good pastures with grass. The central part of B. Zayatsky occupies the remnant of a powerful glacial moraine - Mount Sopka. The mountain is devoid of vegetation, the top is rocky. Near the shore (1 km south of Sopka) is Mount Signalnaya, along the crest of which a moraine ridge is clearly visible. Buildings: ancient labyrinths or babylons, an artificial harbor closed from the sea with masonry of large boulders, the Church of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, worship crosses.

Malaya Muksalma Island

Malaya Muksalma is the smallest of the six largest islands of the Solovetsky archipelago. Seasonal residents - draggers, algae miners - kelp, call their island differently. "Little Mu, as written on the local shop, ... or gloomy - Cannibal Island. The history of Muksalma really inclines more towards the latter ... -." ( Alexey Sheptunov. Who are draggers? " Vedomosti Pomorye", 25.08.2004). They shot women right there, right from the pier, from which draggers today go out to catch kelp ...

Multiple Locations

Serial ID Number	name & location	coordinates	area	Date Inscribed
632-001	Solovetsky Island. Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N65 05 E35 40	21872 ha	1992
632-002	Anzer Island Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N65 08 43 E36 05 47	4711 Ha	1992
632-003	Big Mucksalma Island	N65 02 33 E035 57 31	1896 Ha	1992
632-004	Small Mucksalma Island Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N65 01 00 E036 01 00	120 Ha	1992
632-005	Small Zayatsky Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N64 57 00 E035 40 00	110 Ha	1992
632-006	Big Zayatski Island Solovetsky District, Arkhangelsky, Russian Federation	N64 58 00 E035 39 00	125 Ha	1992
unknown author. Source: Cultural and Historic Ensemble of the Solovetsky Islands. www.unesco.org