Mount Bistyube

Mount Bistyube (Gora Bistyube) is an 84-hectare landscape and geomorphological nature monument in the Yasny Urban District of Orenburg Oblast. It lies 2 km north of the village of Bistyube, between the Kumak River and nearby villages, away from major roads. It is a low hill covered with rocky, hilly steppe and shrub thickets, typical of the natural landscapes of eastern Orenburg Oblast.

What to see

The slopes and summit expose dark-coloured rocks — diabase, gabbro and green schist. About 2.5 km southeast of the summit are outcrops of serpentinite and listvenite, rocks suitable for ornamental carving. On the summit itself stand tall piles of stones built by people long ago; they gave the hill one of its names.

History

The hill is known under several names: Bistyube, Bis-Tyube, Bes-Tyube and Five Hills. The last name — a translation of "Bes-Tyube" — comes directly from the stone piles on the summit. According to tradition, in the past these piles served as a boundary marker dividing the lands of two Kazakh clans — the Kutpanai and the Ormantai.

Before the revolution, a stone statue (kamennaya baba) was found in a pit at the foot of the hill. Between the hill and the Kumak River stand the ruins of a Kazakh aul (settlement). Nearby is the settlement of Rechnoy — formerly plot No. 6 of the "Akzharsky" state farm, renamed in 1966; until 2016 it belonged to the Novoselsky rural council.

Nature

Mount Bistyube is a nesting site of the steppe eagle. The rocky, hilly steppe with shrub thickets on its slopes provides conditions for nesting birds of prey and for the preservation of steppe vegetation. The combination of exposed bedrock and steppe relief is the reason the hill was given the status of a nature monument.

Getting there

Mount Bistyube is located in the Yasny Urban District of Orenburg Oblast, 2 km north of the village of Bistyube, between the Kumak River and nearby villages, close to the settlement of Rechnoy. Coordinates for navigation: 51°14′07″N, 59°47′43″E (51.235244, 59.795247). A route to the hill can be planned on a map from the village of Bistyube or the settlement of Rechnoy — the nearest inhabited places.