Ichalkovskiy Bor — a relict forest massif in Perevozsky District, Nizhny Novgorod Region.
It belongs to the Perevozsky forestry unit of the Buturlinskiy leskhoz (forest management enterprise).
Background
A remarkable, almost fairy-tale view opens up at one of the winding bends of the Pyana River, situated about one and a half kilometres to the east of the village of Ichalki. Mountain massifs rise unexpectedly in the middle of the steppe, and on their slopes spreads a relict mountain-taiga pine forest. The forest thicket is cut through by rocky limestone outcrops and karst formations in the shape of funnels, sinkholes, and grottoes, some of which resemble the ruins of medieval castles.
According to one hypothesis, this island formed in pre-glacial times. During the glacial period, part of the massif rose significantly above the ice sheet and later subsided. In support of this theory, it is worth noting that the bedrock on which Ichalkovskiy Bor stands rises 20–40 metres above the level of the Pyana River.
Another hypothesis holds that northern and montane species appeared in the bor during the post-glacial or harsh post-glacial period of the Valdai glaciation. As the climate warmed, these plant communities died out across the Central Russian Plain, but survived here, in the active karst sinkholes, thanks to elevated moisture levels and the limestone bedrock, which includes fine- and coarse-shelled, porous, dolomite-enriched limestones.
These soft rock formations were gradually hollowed out over a long period by the ever-probing waters of the Pyana, creating voids. The ceilings of the underground cavities, unable to bear the load of the upper strata, collapsed, forming sinkholes and giving rise to an unmanmade realm of fantastical shapes and relief. Numerous funnels up to 50–60 metres in diameter and 25–30 metres deep, channels in the form of elongated depressions, chasms with sheer cliff faces, ditches, and ravines are concentrated in the southern part of the bor over an area of approximately 300 hectares. In total, around 1,000 sinkholes have been recorded on the territory of the bor.
Twenty-five metres to the east of Startseva Yama and 80 metres to the south-east of Kholodnaya Cave lies the most picturesque and most dangerous karst sinkhole — the Bezymyannaya (Nameless) Cave. Its moss-covered walls and distinctive, almost architectural forms call to mind an abandoned mountain castle from the Middle Ages. To reach its mysterious halls, one must first cross a narrow, half-ruined causeway that local residents have nicknamed "the Devil's Bridge."
This "bridge" is a scenic arch that formed when an underground gallery once linking two funnels collapsed; a chasm now yawns on the right-hand side. In summer, the path leads straight through the arch to the cave entrance. In its southern part there is a large, dimly lit grotto which, sloping downward, forms an overhanging domed ceiling about 10 metres high. Inside the cave, a tiny lake of crystal-clear water lies hidden from view in a small niche.
Descending to the floor of the cave, you undertake a brief archaeological journey back to the origins of life on our planet. There are very few natural monuments in the flatland regions of Russia that allow you to do this, yet here, in the limestone walls of the cave, you can find fossilised remains of organisms that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago!
Here you find yourself on the floor of an ocean that once covered this land — or more precisely, on the floor of the Bathonian Sea of the late Middle Jurassic (175–100 million years ago), which inundated much of what is now our region. At that time, countless invertebrates inhabited the shallow, very warm Mesozoic seas, but conditions were apparently especially favourable for cephalopod molluscs — the ammonites of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The soft body of the animal was housed in a beautiful, spiral-shaped shell ranging from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter.
Ammonites were fast swimmers, propelling themselves like rockets by expelling water through a siphon connecting the shell's chambers, and they attacked prey by seizing it with their tentacles. In the caves and riverbank bluffs of the Pyana one also encounters remains of another widespread inhabitant of the Jurassic and Cretaceous seas — the belemnite mollusc, which closely resembles a small stone finger. By analysing isotope ratios in mollusc shells, scientists have established that water temperatures in the northern seas reached 28 degrees Celsius. On land, in the water, and in the air, the reptiles of the Mesozoic (dinosaurs, ichthyosaurs, pterosaurs) held sway, while birds and mammals had already appeared.
One hundred and ten metres to the south-west of Bezymyannaya Cave lies another, no less well-known cave — Studencheskaya (Students' Cave). Its entrance is situated in the very middle of the vertical wall of a large karst ravine. Low at the start, the passage gradually opens into a hall where one can stand at full height.
Continuing along the dirt road in a south-easterly direction, after 150–200 metres you will see on your right a karst ravine of enormous proportions with vertical walls, known as Kulevaya Yama. According to one legend, the bodies of suicides were thrown here after being sewn into sacks (kuli). According to another, an old man once threw his cantankerous wife in here, but quickly missing her, came back for her. He cast down the reins and pulled up a ball of snakes, which begged him to take his wife back, saying she was making their lives unbearable down there too…
Getting there
The road to the bor lies on the opposite bank of the Pyana River from the village. As soon as you leave the village and reach its eastern outskirts, a wonderful view opens up. To the left and straight ahead, the high, steep limestone right bank of the river rises like a wall, pitted with the hollows of old quarry workings. To the right, a wide strip of the river's floodplain meadows stretches into the distance, dotted with numerous oxbow lakes and quiet reed-fringed ponds. And to the south-east, where the great elbow-shaped bend of the Pyana begins — roughly 1.5 km from Ichalki — the dense Ichalkovskiy Bor looms through a blue haze.
Turn off at the sign "Ichalkovskiy Quarry" and pass through the gates. Drive through the quarry itself along the dirt track, then continue along the riverbank, past the Ichalkovskaya small hydroelectric station (a modest little building on the bank), all the way to the bor. There is a clearing where you can leave your car (entry into the territory is prohibited) or pitch a tent, as young spelunkers and climbers are wont to do. Its coordinates are given in the heading.
From there, continue on foot along the paths.