Podkamennaya Tunguska - a small pearl in the beautiful necklace of Siberia

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

In 1931, the Tungus, living in the vast territory of Eastern Siberia, began to be officially called Evenks. But the fact that the Tungus lived for centuries along the Yenisei from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the borders with China explains the fact that there are only seven rivers called Tunguska.

The amazing popularity of the name "Tunguska"

And there are four more rivers, in the name of which there is a characterizing adjective - Podkamennaya Tunguska, Upper and two Lower ones, one of which is the old name of the Angara. In the southern part of the Central Siberian Plateau there is a natural region called Tunguska.

An anti-aircraft cannon-missile system bears the same name. The airport of Krasnoyarsk is known as "Stony Tunguska". It is impossible to pass over in silence the Tunguska meteorite and the "Brazilian Tunguska", a celestial body that fell in this country of South America, and was named so because of the similarity with its Siberian counterpart. Tunguska - verya popular title that even made its way into The X-Files.

Some geographic data

The right tributary of the Yenisei is called the Podkamennaya Tunguska, and also the Middle Tunguska, Chulkan and Katanga. The area of the basin is estimated at 240,000 square kilometers, the length reaches 1865 km. Its source is located on the Upper Tunguska Upland, and the Central Siberian Plateau with the natural region of Tunguska, this river crosses from the Angarsk Ridge in the south to the Yenisei in the west. In 1908, a meteorite fell 80 kilometers north of the village of Vanavara. Naturally, it was called Tunguska, because everything around had this name - the district, the river, the population. Podkamennaya Tunguska is navigable for 1146 km, despite numerous rifts and rapids. Some rapids even have personal names.

Beauties honored with personal names

So, the most significant of them are called Big, Flour, as well as Polyguzsky and Velminsky rapids. The river itself and its banks are so beautiful that there is a list of locations whose names are very eloquent. Here there is the Coast of tall grass and Dark waters, Fish Eldorado and Taiga summer, as well as Spruce Island and the Tunguska expanse, Calm bed and Stony shoal. There is also Stony Mountain and Clear Waters. Not every river can boast of this. The filling of the river is mainly helped by snowmelt, although summer and autumn rains also contribute to severe floods (there are from one to four per year), in some years there are floods. The river freezes from October toMay, in which, as a rule, there are always floods. Ice drifts take a decent amount of time - 18 days in autumn and 9 in spring. It is both scary because of the power of the river, and beautiful. “The night is bright, bright in the area, as if floating in the sky - along wide blue stretches - silvery broken ice!”

The peculiarity of the river

Podkamennaya Tunguska is very diverse. In the upper reaches, it has a rather wide and deep valley, then, cutting through rock outcrops (they are called traps), the river forms narrow gorges. The traps, blown by winds for centuries, blowing away rock particles, form characteristic pillars (Red Coast location). In some places, the current reaches a speed of 3-4 centimeters per second. Like the rivers of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the described water flow has tributaries. Tetere, Chula and Chuma are on the right. On the left are Como and Velmo.

The we alth of Stony Tunguska is not inferior to beauty

Fishing on this river can be judged by the name of one of the locations - Fish Eldorado. Fishing competitions often take place here, because more than 30 species of finned river inhabitants live in this river. It is impossible to list them all, but this river in Siberia is famous for grayling, pike of legendary size, burbot and crucian carp, tugun and lenok, dace and minnow. Here, ide and ruff are found in huge quantities, and the tributaries are full of lenok and grayling. Since ice formation on the waterways of Siberia is famous for its fortress, and its terms are long due to frost, local residents are actively engaged in ice fishing, as well asas burbot accumulates under the winter cover, it forms the basis of the fish table. The Podkamennaya Tunguska River is generally famous for the amount of burbot in its waters both in winter and in summer.

Tourist prospects

Fishing in Siberia deserves separate words and praises, and not necessarily foreign ones, such as "Eldorado" and "safari". But, perhaps, they will attract lovers of comfortable fishing, because there are a lot of places for wild recreation here. “On Podkamennaya Tunguska, ice cuts the shores - cuts firs, brings down fir trees, climbs with its chest into the meadows!” An infinite number of poems and songs have been written about this river, as well as about the nature of Siberia in general. All of them are good, and they do not embellish reality with a single word, because there are not enough words to describe at least part of the beauty and grandeur of Siberia.

Every year more and more people want to see it with their own eyes. And, of course, Podkamennaya Tunguska is popular because of its fame. A map showing how far this beautiful river is from the airport of the same name is attached. It should be noted the attractiveness of the river for active tourist recreation - rafting on the river in kayaks and rafts. There are several places on the river for this, and the total length of the waterway suitable for this sport is 550 km. Rafting is designed for 16 days, difficulty category 3rd. The best place on the river for these purposes is the lower reaches. You can stop in the village of Baykita, where there is a bakery and a shop. A section of the river 120 km between this villageand the next, Polygus, is the most picturesque place in the entire Podkamennaya Tunguska.