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