Divnogorye is a plateau and open-air museum in Liskinsky District, Voronezh Oblast, Russia. It is located 10 km to the west from district administrative center on the right bank of Don River, 80 km to the south from Voronezh, not far from khutor Divnogorye. Museum was established in 1988 and received official status of nature reserve museum in 1991. Divnogorye remains of the most popular and recognizable tourist attractions of Voronezh Oblast. More than 60,000 visitors are attracted every season (from May to October), mostly from Voronezh and Oblast.
Description
Nature reserve museum Divnogorye occupies 11 km2 (4.2 sq mi) of limestone outcrops. Maximum altitude above sea level is 181 m or 103 m relative to the mouth of the Tikhaya Sosna River at the confluence with Don River (which flows at the foot of the plateau). Due to rather significant difference in altitude between the plateau and the floodplain of the Don and Tikhaya Sosna rivers, its microclimate differs significantly from its surrounding lowlands. The plateau quickly heats up, rising streams of hot air drive away the emerging clouds toward the low floodplain lands. As a result, annual rainfall in the region (an average of 480 mm per year) over the plateau is reduced by a factor of 1.5–2. The summer period is especially arid. This inhibits the process of water erosion, and also reduces the likelihood of karst dips. The topsoil layer consists of 15–20% of limestone. Below 80 cm (31 in) there is a layer of pure limestone. The top layer undergoes wind erosion (weathering). Despite rather steep slopes, the plateau has undergone significant anthropogenic changes: in 1860 some of it was blown up using dynamite for laying a railway. In addition, shepherds and vandalism caused great damage too.
Etymology
Divnogorye comes from two Russian words: divo (plural divy) – miracle, which was used as reference to limestone buttes inhabited by orthodox monks and gora – mountain or upland (nagorye). For the first time, it appeared in travel notes of Ignaty Smolyanin, who accompanied Pimen, Metropolitan of Moscow in 1389.
Flora and fauna
The territory of Divnogorye is located on the northern outskirts steppe zone and differs significantly from the forest steppe zone of Voronezh. For a long time the plateau and its slopes were used for sheep farming which lead to significant vegetation degradation. But after cessation of grazing and human presence regulation, the steppe vegetation was restored in its original form. More than 250 species of xerophytic and petrophytic plants grows on the plateau such as: European feather grass, Salvia nutans, limestone thyme, Securigera varia, Eastern Centaurea, Ephedra distachya, Schiveréckia podólica, Clematis integrifolia, Pulsatilla pratensis, Onosma simplicissima, pygmy iris and Iris aphylla, snowdrop anemone, Adonis vernalis. Great bustard and golden eagle can be occasionally seen on the territory of the reserve. Merops and Eurasian eagle-owl are more common. Hares and foxes are most common mammals. Bats live in the crevices. The entomological fauna is rich, among which the most common are: bumblebees, dragonflies, paper wasps, Saga pedo, stag beetles, Lethrus beetles, swallowtail butterflies
Tourism
Divnogorye is the center of Orthodox pilgrimage. On the territory of the museum and the immediate vicinity there are: cave churches of The Sicilian Icon of the Mother of God, St. John the Baptist and Divnogorsk-3 (XIX century), The Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (XVII century), and the Mayatsk fortress (Khazar, IX-X centuries) and necropolis and Mayatsk pottery complex (Khazar, IX-X centuries), archaeological park. The nature reserve museum is accessible for free, there is a wide range of excursion programs for organized tourist groups. There is a camping ground and a hotel next to the museum. Excursion trails and attractions on the territory of the museum are marked with information signs and supplied with tourist information. The territory of the museum is guarded.
Liskinsky District (Russian: Ли́скинский райо́н) is an administrative and municipal district (raion), one of the thirty-two in Voronezh Oblast, Russia. It is located in the western central part of the oblast. The area of the district is 2,033 square kilometers (785 sq mi). Its administrative center is the town of Liski. Population: 98,577 (2021 Census); 105,704 (2010 Census); 50,142 (2002 Census); 50,352 (1989 Census). The population of Liski accounts for 54.9% of the district's total population.
Voronezh Oblast (Russian: Воро́нежская о́бласть, romanized: Voronezhskaya oblastʹ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the city of Voronezh. Its population was 2,308,792 as of the 2021 Census.
Geography
Voronezh Oblast borders internally with Belgorod Oblast, Kursk Oblast, Lipetsk Oblast, Tambov Oblast, Saratov Oblast, Volgograd Oblast and Rostov Oblast and internationally with Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine.
Voronezh Oblast is located in the central belt of the European part of Russia, in a very advantageous strategic location, transport links to the site going to the industrial regions of Russia. Within the radius (12 hours of driving 80 km/h) 960 kilometers around Voronezh more than 50% of the population Russia, and 40% in Ukraine live.
The area of the region - 52.4 thousand km2, which is about one third of the whole area of Central Black Earth Region.[citation needed] The length of the region from north to south - 277.5 km, and from west to east - 352 km. Much of the area is steppe, among the predominant soil fertile soil black earth.
The oblast has 738 lakes and ponds in 2408, in 1343 the river flows over 10 km long. The main river is the Don, 530 of its 1,870 km flows through the area, forming a drainage area of 422,000 square kilometers.
Don
Voronezh
Bityug
Khopyor
Climate
The climate in the region is temperate continental, with an average January temperatures of −4.5 °C (23.9 °F), and with an average July temperatures of +25 to +30 °C (77 to 86 °F). Average annual temperature varies from +5 °C (41 °F) in the north to +6.5 °C (43.7 °F) in the south. Precipitation varies from 600 millimeters (24 in) in the northwest to 450 millimeters (18 in) in the southeast.
History
The oblast was established on June 13, 1934.
On 21 May 1998 Voronezh alongside Amur, Ivanovo, Kostroma Oblast, and the Mari El Republic signed a power-sharing agreement with the federal government, granting it autonomy. This agreement would be abolished on 22 February 2002.
Museum, Reserve Divnogorie, Liski district of Voronezh region
Kostyonki, which is located within the Voronezh Oblast, is known for high concentration of cultural remains of anatomically modern humans from the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic era.[citation needed] The first and oldest camp rights in Europe.[clarification needed] A layer of Campanian volcanic ash from about 40,000 years ago has been found above some of the finds, showing that "unknown humans" inhabited the site before this. The earliest directly dated human remains from this site are dated to 32,600 ± 1,100 14C years and consist of tibia and fibula, with traits classifying the bones to European early modern humans.
In 2009, DNA was extracted from the remains of a male hunter-gatherer who lived 40,000 years BP and died aged 20–25. His maternal lineage was found to be U2. He was buried in an oval pit in a crouched position and covered with red ochre.
