Khatanga Underground Mammoth Museum
Khatanga Undeground Mammoth Museum is located in a horisontal ice cave, that used to be a food storage, in the village of Khatanga on a bank of the Khatanga River in Taymyr Peninsula in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russia.
In short, it is an ice cave full of the recently discovered remains of mammoths & other ancient animals. It is believed that Khatanga undeground mammoth museum contains the biggest collection of ice age fauna remains in Russia and the world. It’s true or not, any paleontologist or paleontology fan would love to visit this place, get into the permafrost tunnel and touch the prehistoric world.
Khatanga Mammoth Museum Background
Such a natural ice age history museum was officialy created with the help of the Administration of Taimyr Autonomous Region, but on French mammoth fauna researcher Bernard Buigues and his fellows’ initiative.
Bernard Buigues has organized expeditions to the North Pole and Siberia since the early 1990s from Khatanga, that was used as a good starting point. He is the founder of Mammuthus, (www.mammuthus.org), a scientific program aimed at constructing a record of paleobiodiversity.
Mammuthus’ Khatanga Museum Presentation Video:
Here’s what Bernard Buigues says about his program mission himself:
“To excavate, care for, study and preserve the precious material that the permafrost offers us each year is an inspiring mission. While new technologies allow us to decode these vestiges of memory, it is also our duty to preserve them for future generations of researchers.”
Khatanga Mammoth Museum Location:
Check the following Khatanga location map:
Direction: Russia -> Siberia -> Krasnoyarsk Krai -> Taymyr Peninsula -> The Khatanga River -> Khatanga village (selo)
About Khatanga, Russia
It is a rural village. In Russian we call it “selo”. Set 30 m (98 ft) above sea level. Despite of its village status, it’s a relatively big settlement around three and a half thousand population.
The settlement was established in 1626. In the Evenki language, the name “Khatanga” means “large water”. Indeed, the village is located on a bank of the Khatanga River and considered to be a port.
There is an airport in the area. Flights to Khatanga from Norilsk and Krasnoyarsk are done once a week.
What to see in Khatanga, Russia?
- a river port,
- tundra wilderness,
- weather stations,
- a natural history museum,
- so-called ship graveyard,
- an abandoned diamond station,
- two mammoth museums (one is ordinary, the other is the cave-located we feature in this post).
Khatanga Photo Report
Below see photographs of ice cave located mammoth museum, taken by a Russian blogger Antohag and shared on his personal LiveJournal blog:
An ancient Siberian horse scull.
Some other ancient beast.
Photographs via Livejournal Adventure Guild Community by Antohag.
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