Sunday 15 May 2011

Tomskaya Pisanitsa


Recently I have discovered one more attraction not far from Novosibirsk, which is definitely worth  visiting and spending the whole day there. I read about it some time ago, but it was only a week ago when we made the tour. Now I include this tour into the program I offer and recommend to my tourists and to all visitors of Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Kemerovo.


Tomskaya Pisanitsa (http://www.gukmztp.ru/eng_index.html)is one of the most interesting places in Kemerovo Region. Though the city of Kemerovo itself does not have a lot to offer to its visitors, Tomskaya Pisanitsa, the first Siberian monument of Rock Art which became the open-air museum, attracts numerous Russian and foreign visitors. The museum is situated 35 km to the north of Kemerovo, and if your starting point is Kemerovo, you can easily reach it in as little as half an hour. But we were driving from Novosibirsk, so we had nearly 280 km to go. There are several variants of getting there from Novosibirsk, and the museum is also accessible from Tomsk. The museum is accessible only by bus or car, and in summer there should be an opportunity to reach it by boat either from Kemerovo or from Tomsk.

The museum is famous for its 280 petroglyphs on the rocks dating from 4000–1000 BC. The exhibition also includes reconstructions of ancient dwellings as well as some later cultural artefacts pertaining to the Shors people and a lot more including   mini-zoo, presentation of historical facts and facts about time and chronology, an exhibition of the characters from Russian folk fairy-tales, ghosts and different mythological characters. Located in the beautiful forest near the Tom river, the museum is a nice place to spend a weekend both in winter and in summer.
There is a nice cafe in the museum offering first-class cakes, coffee and other dishes. And there is also a chapel, which is open mostly on church holidays and on Sundays in summer.

We were especially impressed by stunning landscapes and views of the Tom river and the surroundings. One can stay there for a long time forgetting about everything and simply watching the view. It makes one feel so relaxed and serene that it is almost impossible to force oneself to go.

I've made loads of pictures there and it is a hard job to select only some of them. Anyway, if you happen to be in Novosibirsk or Kemerovo, I strongly recommend you to spare a day and visit this place.

The entrance. You will definitely see it.

An inhabitant of the zoo

A reconstructed ancient dwelling

View of the Tom river

Real artifacts found in Altai, Khakassia and in a lot of other places

Baba Yaga's (a witch from Russian fairy-tales) house.

Reconstructed village of the Shors people


Time and chronology

Slavic gods


The souvenir shop. You won't leave it without a purchase

The chapel

A bear skin can be tried on for 100 rubles

Another ancient dwelling
 This is only a small portion of what the museum offers.
And you are highly recommended to visit it on some Slavic or Orthodox holiday, as the museum organizes spectacular festivals on those days.
As for our family, we are going there on the 7th of July, St. John the Baptist's day.

Interested? If you happen to be in Novosibirsk, contact me and I promise you'll have a great day there!

2 comments:

  1. What a nice place! I have never heard about it.

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  2. I heard about it in January this year for the first time. And there is very little information about it in the Internet.

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