Shartash Stone Tents

The Stone Tents are a ridge of granite outcrops on the shore of Lake Shartash, ten minutes from central Yekaterinburg. The rocks stretch for 80–100 metres and rise 24 metres above the lake: they are built of 'mattress-shaped' slabs stacked like pancakes — the way wind, water and temperature swings have carved the ~300-million-year-old granite of the Shartash massif. The site is archaeologically rich: up to ten settlements and camps are known on the Shartash shores, the earliest dating to the 3rd millennium BC. The rocks served ancient inhabitants as a sanctuary and a 'metallurgical base'. In the early 20th century the site hosted May Day gatherings of the Bolsheviks, with Yakov Sverdlov among the speakers. In 1915 industrial granite quarrying began at the rocks — it was stopped thanks to the botanist Onisim Kler and the Ural Society of Natural Science Lovers. The Tents have been protected as a nature monument since 1960, a protected zone operates since 1983, and the rocks themselves are listed as a federal cultural heritage site.