The Salavat Land: Malyaz and the Geopark Caves

Description

A day in the Salavat district of Bashkortostan, inside the Yangan-Tau UNESCO Geopark — but not at the resort itself: the route assembles the museum of the national hero and two caves above the Yuryuzan and Ay rivers. About ninety kilometres by road; the cave approaches are short but gravel. The starting point is Malyaz, home to the Salavat Yulayev Museum, a branch of the National Museum of the republic. The exhibition tells of the Bashkir way of life in the eighteenth century, the causes of participation in Pugachev’s rising and the hero’s fate: a battle diorama, interrogation documents of Salavat and Yulay Aznalin, letters. An important caveat: since April 2025 the museum has been closed for renovation, provisionally until the end of 2027 — check its status before travelling and take your historical context from official materials. Next is the Idrisovskaya cave, also known as Kisstyatash, a kilometre from the village of Idrisovo on the high left bank of the Yuryuzan. The rock massif is cut by window-grottoes framing the river’s bend; it is a federal archaeological monument with Stone Age rock paintings. Local legend links the shelter with Salavat himself during the Peasant War — but precisely as legend: the paintings must not be touched or traced, and the edge above the river is unfenced. The finale is the Laklinskaya cave on the slope of Laklytau hill, a nature monument since 1965. It is a horizontal system of three grottoes about two hundred and fifty metres long in total: the entrance sits some thirty-five metres above the river, with a second opening above it forming a natural karst bridge. Pallas gave the first scientific description in 1770; since 2019 there are stairs and railings inside, but a torch, warm clothes and care on the ice are essential — the entrance section stays cold all year.