Эссе "Altay is my native land"

Altai is my native land and I’m so proud of it. Even if I were on the opposite side of the globe, I would always keep in mind this precious place where I was born and grew up – my loved Altai. I do love these totally stunning landscapes.

Placed right in the centre of the biggest continent in the world – Eurasia – the Altai region contains amazing nature treasures. Eternal enormous mountains are always protecting our region from all the danger; crystal-clear rivers and lakes really looks like the eyes of the Earth; powerful trees in Altai’s forests look as if they try to reach out the sky. I’m sure, nowhere else on the planet you can find such a magic place.

A lot of tourists from different countries often set off to the Altai region just to get away from all problems they have, to become a part of the nature and enjoy heavenly tranquility in mind and body. Not by chance, the word “Altai” is translated as gold. Actually, such a perfect view can’t make people indifferent. When we are looking at Altai’s glory, it’s like a music in our soul, silent but grand.

The native inhabitants of Altai region have a great number of local legends narrating about the beginning of this land. One of them is about the mountain called Babyrgan. In accordance with this legend, centuries ago charming Katun, the powerful Altai’s daughter, ran away from her father in order to be with beloved man. Altai was angry and sent a strong man Babyrgan to catch fugitive female. But Babyrgan couldn’t manage in his goal and furious Altai turned him in a mountain. Even today tourists imagine a shape of powerful man in the top of the mountain.

Another one fantastic Altai’s legend is connected with the Belukha mountain. Many people call it as the Altai’s queen, the keeper and the holy mountain. “The queen” doesn’t like when someone troubles her, that’s why not everybody could rise on its top.

Have you ever heard about the mysteries of Altai’s caves? It’s extremely popular with tourists. According to the old story, the Denisov’s cave is a home of the Black Shaman, who doesn’t let people go inside his home.

In the New-Karakolska cave everyone can enjoy the perfect view of many stalactites there. It really looks like a very famous architecture construction. But the magic of such spectacular structure was created by nature.

The place of confluence of two powerful rivers - Biya and Katun – is also has a charming legend. According to it, lovely girl Katun and pretty young man Biy decided to turn into the one river in order always to be together.

Altai’s beauty is known in many parts of the Earth. This peaceful place with a great number of natural attractions makes people believe in the mystery and enjoy this quiet atmosphere.

The Altai region is so popular not only because its breathtaking nature. There are a lot of world famous people who were born in this land. They succeeded in different ways of people’s activities: literature, technology, art, cinema and many more.

Altai’s famous directors and actors:

Ivan Pyryev. Everyone knows and really loves his movies «Pig-tender and Herdsman», «Kuban Cossacs», «The Idiot». The list of his films is large and all of them are perfect.

Vasilyi Shukshin. This man was born in a tiny Altai’s village, but it wasn’t a problem for him to become so popular. He was the director of movies, like “Red guelder-rose”. He also was a great writer, whose creations are still loved by people.

Ekaterina Savinova. She was a very famous Russian actress. Mostly because of her role of Frosya Burlakova in the Ivan Pyryev’s movie “Come tomorrow…”.

Altay’s celebrities: Valeriy Zolotukhin, Aleksander Pankratov-Cherny, Irina Miroshnichenko, Vladimir Hotinenko.

If to talk about famous people, who were born in Altai region, we just couldn’t miss German Titov. Нe was the first person who made the long space fly. Even thought he is mostly known as the first after Gagarin, he will always be loved and unforgettable for his compatriots.

And one more world famous Altai’s native it’s, certainly, Mikhail Kalashnikov. His invention of self-loading small arms made a great progress of guns. It’s also played a big role for helping Russian people to win the Great Patriotic War.

I love my motherland Altay and I strongly support the words of a famous botanist and geographer and traveler Sapozhnikov Vasily, who said:“To be only a tourist in Altai– too luxurious for a tourist and too little to the Altai…”