Ukok Plateau

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ukok Plateau is a remote and pristine grasslands area located in the heart of southwestern Siberia, the Altai region of Russia near the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

Part of the Ukok Plateu is Pazyryk, a local name for a valley in the Altai Mountains south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, Here many ancient Bronze Age artifacts have been found. Three tattooed mummies (c. 300 BCE) were extracted from the permafrost of the Ukok Plateau in the second half of the 20th century.^[1]

It is recognized as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site entitled Golden Mountains of Altai as an important environmental treasure. Currently the Ukok Plateau is being threatened by plans for a gas pipeline between China and Russia. It is also being threatened by a proposal to build a road through it as well as overuse of the steppe by ranchers.^[2]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Bronze collect at Novosibirsk State University - including Pazyryk. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.
2. ^ Altai: Saving the Pearl of Siberia. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.

[edit] References

• S.I. Rudenko, Kul'tura naseleniia Gornogo Altaia v skifskoe vremia ("The Population of the High Altai in Scythian Times")(Moscow and Leningrad, 1953) translated as Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen, M.W. Thompson, tr. (University of California Press, Berkeley) 1970. ISBN 0520013956

[edit] External links

• Greater Altai – Altai Krai, Republic of Altai, Tyva (Tuva), and Novosibirsk
• Gas pipeline route in south Siberia to be approved in August
• A collection at Novosibirsk State University site, including Pazyryk