23:55 07-12-2025

Putorana Plateau: Siberia’s wild maze of lakes and falls

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Discover the Putorana Plateau in Siberia: a roadless basalt realm of 25,000 lakes, high waterfalls, rare wildlife and mysteries born of an ancient supervolcano.

In the heart of Russia lies a land time seems to have forgotten. The Putorana Plateau stretches across an area the size of a country, with no cities and no roads. Even in the twenty-first century, this corner of Siberia remains one of the wildest and least explored places on Earth.

The mark of an ancient catastrophe

The plateau has an unusual origin. Around 250 million years ago, a supervolcano raged here. Its eruption was so powerful that it triggered the Great Permian extinction, when most species vanished. Lava smothered millions of square kilometers, and the activity continued for tens of thousands of years. From that cataclysm emerged a distinctive landscape—an immense basalt plateau with an average elevation of about a kilometer.

A labyrinth of stone and water

Putorana is often described as the land of ten thousand lakes and a thousand waterfalls—and that isn’t hyperbole. The plateau holds more than 25,000 lakes filled with crystal-clear water. In terms of freshwater reserves, the region is second only to Lake Baikal. It also hosts Russia’s highest waterfall, Talnikoviy, with a drop of 700 meters. Rivers have carved deep canyons into the basalt, creating an impassable maze of gorges and sheer cliffs.

Why are there no people here?

Despite rich mineral deposits—platinum, nickel, and copper—large-scale development never took off. The reasons lie in the character of the land itself. The climate is severe: winter lasts eight to ten months, and temperatures fall to −50°C. There is barely any soil, making agriculture impossible. Reaching the plateau is feasible only by air or by water during the short summer. Building roads across colossal canyons and rock walls is extraordinarily difficult and costly.

Inhabitants of a protected realm

Isolation has shaped a unique fauna. The Putorana snow sheep lives here; at one time it was thought to be extinct. Reindeer migration routes cross the plateau. The lakes shelter endemic fish such as char. There is also a rare bird—the black crane—and the only amphibian is the Siberian salamander, capable of surviving years of freezing.

Unsolved mysteries

The plateau carries an aura of riddles. Indigenous peoples long avoided these places, believing them to be a realm of spirits. History tells of expeditions that mysteriously vanished. Travelers and researchers at times come across strange stone structures of unclear origin. And on winter nights, giant luminous spirals are occasionally seen above the plateau—an atmospheric phenomenon scientists have yet to fully explain.

A world that remained itself

Today the Putorana Plateau is a vast nature reserve. It stands as a reminder that some places still let nature set the terms. Only well-prepared travelers and scientists make it this far, drawn by the chance to witness primordial Siberia—stern, majestic, and beautiful in its unyielding solitude.