Ust-Kanskaya Cave

Ust-Kanskaya Cave (Усть-Канская пещера) lies in the Ust-Kansky District of the Altai Republic, 3.5 km east of the village of Ust-Kan, on the right bank of the Charysh River, near the road to Ust-Koksa. The cave opens in a mountain known locally as Bely Kamen (White Rock), also called Almys Tuu Boom — the Mountain of the Almys. It is one of the best-known Paleolithic sites in the Altai Mountains.

History

The cave was discovered in 1954 by archaeologist S. I. Rudenko. Excavations showed that people lived here as far back as the Middle Paleolithic, with the cultural layer estimated at around 600,000 years old. Finds include stone and bone tools — burins, scrapers and points — along with the remains of hearths. The bone material includes 17 mammal species, among them the screw-horned antelope, and 12 bird species. Part of the finds is now kept in the State Hermitage Museum, the rest in the Altai Regional Museum of Local Lore in Barnaul. Since 1998 archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have surveyed the cave every year.

Legends and stories

Several Altai legends are tied to the cave. According to one, it was once home to the almys — shapeshifting beings that today are compared to the yeti, or snowman. People say that on the night of the full moon the cave walls part and the almys come out into the human world. Another belief holds that the cave is an entrance to the underground realm of Erlik, the lord of the dead in Altai mythology. There is also a tale of a boy named Kan who defeated an evil almys not with strength but with his kind, joyful smile — by tradition, the village of Ust-Kan is said to be named after him.

The cave today

The cave is a spacious, warm grotto about 17 meters long and up to 9 meters wide at its widest point. The ceiling reaches as high as 12 meters in places. The entrance, about 8 meters wide and up to 4 meters high, sits 50-54 meters above the water level of the Charysh, so reaching it means climbing up the mountainside. At the foot of Bely Kamen stands a researchers' camp with the "Oybok" yurt complex.

Getting there

The cave is 3.5 km east of Ust-Kan, the district center of Ust-Kansky District, next to the road leading to Ust-Koksa. Wooden steps lead from the foot of Bely Kamen mountain up to the cave entrance.