Uchalinskoye Trans-Urals: Menhirs and Lakes

Description

A day in the Uchalinsky district of eastern Bashkortostan, right at the Chelyabinsk border: a Late Bronze Age megalithic complex, two large lakes and a gentle bare ridge with views over the whole Trans-Urals. About a hundred and ten kilometres by road; field tracks turn to mud after rain, and the steppe offers almost no shade. It starts with the Akhunovo menhirs a kilometre southwest of the village of Akhunovo: thirteen upright granite blocks, some forming a ring around two central stones — a rare type for the steppe Trans-Urals. The complex was discovered in 1996 and studied in 2003 by an expedition of the Arkaim centre; excavations assigned it to Late Bronze horizons, over three thousand years old. Popular versions about an “observatory” are interpretations, not established fact; the stones must not be moved and fires must not be lit nearby. The route then turns to the water. Urgun is one of the largest lakes of the republic: a mirror of about twelve square kilometres and depths to eight metres; since 1965 the lake with the Urgun pine forest has formed a nature monument of nearly three and a half thousand hectares. The eastern pine shore is more scenic than the urban side of Uchaly; fishing follows local rules. Aushkul is smaller — about two and a half square kilometres — but from its western bank rises the cone-shaped Aushtau hill, about six hundred and forty-five metres: the main visual dominant of the place. On the hill and at the Auliya spring are venerated pilgrimage sites: modest dress, silence by the graves, no inscriptions. The finale is the Nurali ridge: eight kilometres of rounded bare summits up to about seven hundred and fifty metres at the sources of the Miass River. The lookout summit “Three Elephants”, around seven hundred and twenty-five metres, is popular. There is no water on the crest and the wind is strong even in heat; a radial walk takes a couple of hours and closes the day with a broad panorama of the steppe.