The Lena River in Artic Siberia, a geographical and historic landmark

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3. The Lena River

The Lena (Ле́на) River in Siberia is also one of the world's longest rivers (~ 4 300 km). It starts in the Baikal Mountains, west of Lake Baikal, and in a meandering course flows first northeastward and then almost due north to the Laptev Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean. 

The Lena begins west of the Baikal.

The Lena at its source.

The Lena is a major and crucial waterway, being navigable almost its entire length. Unfortunately, its waters freeze at different times of the year along its length.

The Lena at Ust-Kut.

The first section flows through Yakutia in a quite irregular course, winding on mostly flat taiga land of the central Siberian plateau. The first remarkable feature is the Lena Pillars geologic formation, as it approaches Yakutsk city.

The Lena Pillars

Lena Pillars (Ле́нские столбы́) is a natural rock formation along the banks of the Lena River, after Ust-Kut and a few miles before Yakutsk city.

Lena Pillars is a classified Nature Park

The pillars are 150–300 metres  high. Most are situated between the villages of Petrovskoye and Tit-Ary.

They consist of alternating layers of limestone, dolomite and slate from early to middle Cambrian, which have been eroded, producing the rugged outcrops.

The Lena Pillars Nature Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2012.

Recently a tourist cruise ship started operating from Yakutsk.

 

This Siberian region of Yakutia suffers severe cold conditions, and the Lena freezes for several months (October to May, at least).

Yakutsk

Yakutsk is world famous as a record cold city, a "pole of cold", reaching and surpassing frequently - 40ºC. The low record is -64.4ºC, something beyond imagination.

Here the Lena course is  divided in branches; on the main wide branch is the large harbour, but the city grew on the banks of a smaller branch.

Pedestrian bridge over a Lena branch.

This is the main urban settlement (pop. ~ 300 000) in Yakutia, a large and historic industrial city and port in central Siberia founded in the 17th century. Mining (mainly diamonds, gold also), oil and gas processing, are the main activities. Yakutsk is the most dynamic and fast-developing city in the Russian Far East.

Lacking a bridge over the Lena anywhere, the city is then the end of the three only roads in the country. The river has to be crossed by ferry, or driving on thick ice in winter. There are several projects of high tech bridges, but the costs have been forbidding due to the unstable ground (permafrost is 250m deep) and ice packing.

In the past, the area was also chosen by soviet regim to install Gulag camps to explore  prisoners' work. A "death road" from Yakutsk to Magadan still remains, its ruins testifying the terrible era of Stalin rule. Today, the worst in Yakutsk is pollution and isolation, though life standards have been increasing.

Yakutsk is also the only city entirely built on permafrost; houses have to be built on wooden or concrete stilts.

One of the most important river harbours in Russia, Yakutsk is a regional hub for shipping trade.

The spring ice break-up is accompanied by ice jams and a sudden rise in water levels often with very destructive flooding. The river level has been known to rise as much as thirty feet in one day as a result of an ice dam.

The Lena after Kyusyur, approaching the Delta.

As it heads to Tiksi, the vital and strategically crucial port in the Laptev Sea near the Delta, the river gets busier; several cargo ships make the trip between Yakutsk and Tiksi.

In summer, also the new Lena cruise line operates from and to Tiksi:

Entering the Delta.

A few decades ago, this part of Siberia was probably most desertic, murky and dismal, few settlements surviving in such an unfriendly environment, far from everything, far from the world. Just some native Yakut hamlets persisted when, in the 19th century, the tragedy of the Jeannette  happened on the Delta, after a failed but heroic Arctic journey in the years 1879-1881.

Members of the crew wading ashore on the Delta, 1881.

The USS Jeannette expedition painfully progressed through iced arctic waters, until the ship was captured and sunk by thick ice. Two of the three boats managed to land on the Lena River Delta, and part of the crew was finally rescued in very bad shape at native Yakut villages; but many couldn't and left their lives buried in the Delta's marshy soil.

Map of the Delta after George Melville, from the Jeannette crew.

The Lena Delta

So: at the mouth, the Lena flows in a large Delta that is about 400 km wide, and is divided into seven major branches.

The Delta is frozen tundra for about seven months each year, but from May through September it is a lush wetland.

The Lena Delta was first reached in 1633, and the whole river fully explored in 1885-86.

Stolb Island (остров Столб), a huge rock formation in the Delta. Most other islands are flat.

Finally, Tiksi:

Since the 90's, the town has been progressively abandoned and almost left to military personnel, which kept living and working here, as the harbour is an important naval base. Its location in a possible Northeast Passage route is the reason for the rehabilitation that seems to be in process.

Tiksi in the freezing mist, the Delta visible in the distance.


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Next, and last:
The great Kolyma river, on far eastern Siberia

The mighty Yenisei, one of the four great rivers of Arctic Siberia

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2.Yenisei River

The majestic, awe-inspiring Yenisei is almost a whole world - a truly Siberian world, as its basin, starting in Mongolia, then spreads through ‎2 580 000 km² of central Siberia.

The upper part of the Yenisei River Basin includes Lake Baikal (see here), and nearby historic town of Irkutsk (also mentionned here) on the Angara river, the main tributary to the Yenisei. Both are central features of the History, geography and culture in Siberia, and have somehow become travelers utopian destinations.

The Yenisei at its source, at the lake Kara-Balik.

Rising in Mongolia, the Yenisei flows generally from south to north across central Siberia, traversing steppe grasslands, then taiga forest, and finally tundra as it runs into the Kara sea.

It may well be one also of the most beautiful rivers

With a length of around 4000 km, the Yenisei flows through a mountainous region in its middle section.

Mainly in the middle course, canyons, falls and rapids

Through the Khakassia region, before Krasnoyarsk, the river starts a quieter course amidst magnificent landscapes:

An important water flow into the Yenisei is brought from the tributary Kureyka river, with the most powerful falls in Russia:

On the Kureyka also exist hydroelectric dam and power station.

Russian cossacks first settled on the Yenisei in the early 17th century with the major settlement founded at Krasnoyarsk, ca. 1626. Now an industrial and rather unpleasant metropolis, still Krasnoyarsk is the centre of urban life in the heart of Siberia.

The Trans-Siberian runs across the Yenisei here on a bridge from 1896, "a typical parabolic polygonal truss bridge" awarded in Paris 1900 World Exhibition:

The Trans-Siberian line was one of the main factors of developpment of Krasnoyarsk; here, the river routes and the railway complement each other, creating a network for modern urban life to conquer this part of Siberia.

From Moscow, the train no. 55/56 ‘Yenisey’ takes 60 hours for a journey of over 4000 km.

The most distinctive features of Krasnoyark are the river banks and this concrete bridge from 1961, the Communal Bridge:

Pedestrian walk by yhe Yenesei. There is also a river cruise boat operating from Krasnoyarsk.

Communal Bridge at sunset

Trade barge on the Yenisei

Some miles downriver, before Lesosibirsk, the Yenisei is fed by its most important tributary, a long way far from its source in Lake Baikal: the Angara.

The Angara river is the main tributary to the Yenisei.

From here the river starts its flatland course meandering through the tundra. For centuries the Yenisei was the center of Siberian fur trade as well as hunting and fishing activities, but since soviet times there has been intense industrial development, particularly mining at Norilsk. Industry has been made possible by a series of massive hydroelectric dams on the Yenisei.

So this is what Norilsk looks like: "Harsh industrialized landscapes, smokestacks, pipelines everywhere, muddy wasteland instead of lawns or parkland, box-like heavy industry buildings and installations; grayness, gloominess".

Norilsk fumes over the Yenisei: the most polluted city in the world

The frozen Yenisei:
Frequently under -30ºC as it enters the highest latitudes deep north of the Artic Circle, the Yenisei freezes part of the year.

In this section, Dudinka is a huge river port serving Norilsk.

A small icebreaker forces its way through thick ice at Dudinka

Boy riding a bike on the iced banks of the Yenisei

This is one of the most dreadful regions in Siberia: following the Yenisei northwards, the town of Igarka was meant to be the terminal of the infamous railway from Salekhard which costed the life of many thousands prisoners of the Gulag. It was never built, but rusty remains of the rails and train engines keep the memory of the tragedy.

After Dudinka, the Yenisei starts a larger and larger estuary, then a delta until the final gigantic gulf into the Kara Sea.

 

The estuary

This is the longest (732 km) estuary in Eurasia, with a maximum channel width of approx. 50 km.

The delta consists of several branches constantly changing its course over the marshy terrain. Piles of driftwood are stocked in multiple sandy islets.
 

Finally, the Gulf. An important harbour lies there, the port town of Dikson. Founded in 1915 by Swedish Arctic pioneer Oscar Dikson, it's the northernmost town in Asia, at 73°30′ N, 80°31′ E,  known as "capital of the Arctic".

Dikson, a major port in the Northeast Route through the Artic Ocean.

Nuclear icebreaker 'Taymyr' operating at Yenisei Gulf.


Despite all the ugly urban and industrial environment of some sections, most of the Yenisei is still a place to enjoy and dream.

Evening at the Yenisei

Read more:
https://www.britannica.com/place/Yenisey-River

Next:
the mytical Lena, a Siberian river with History.