Kolonna Sea Stack

Kolonna (Russian: Кекур Колонна, "Column") is a solitary sea stack about 20 meters tall rising straight out of the water in the strait between Sibiryakov and Antipenko islands, in Peter the Great Bay of the Sea of Japan. The stack stands roughly in the middle of a long underwater spit that links the two islands, in Khasansky District of Primorsky Krai, off the town of Slavyanka.

History

The stack was once used as a target for artillery practice, and unexploded shells and practice rounds still turn up on the seabed around it, a reminder of that period. On the shallow spit near the stack, archaeologists find remains of everyday and ritual pottery from the 6th-8th centuries — pots and bowls left behind from so-called "shell mound" sites, traces of a long human presence on the shores of Peter the Great Bay. A legend connected to the stack holds that a sacred prayer stone once sat on its summit, visited by local people.

Nature

The surface of Kolonna is covered in white bird droppings — it is a permanent roost for seabirds such as cormorants, tufted puffins and gulls that nest directly on the rock. Harbor seals gather at the foot of the stack, sometimes in groups of up to twenty. Closer to autumn, in September, pufferfish and the grey triggerfish can be found on the rocky reef by the stack. Sibiryakov and Antipenko islands themselves, between which the stack stands, are uninhabited and keep much of the untouched coastal nature of Peter the Great Bay. The rich underwater life and the stack's own drop into the depths make the spot popular with divers, who come both for the marine life and for the unusual underwater relief of the spit connecting the islands.

Getting there

The route to Kolonna starts in the town of Slavyanka, reached from Vladivostok by regular bus. Slavyanka can also be reached by water, on a ferry (about 2.5 hours) or a fast "Kometa" hydrofoil (about an hour). From Slavyanka, boats or inflatable rafts carry visitors on to Sibiryakov and Antipenko islands, where the stack stands: there is no way to reach it over land, only by boat.