Khangalas District
Khangalas District is both easy to access and one of the most interesting parts of Yakutia. It was the original homeland of the Yakuts, before the arrival of Russians forced them to spread further north and east. Their language, traditional religion and horse-herding culture have been particularly well preserved here. As well as this it is home to the world-famous Lena Pillars, plenty of ancient rock paintings, sacred shamanic sites and remains of stone-age dwellings.
Indigenous Yakut horse herder riding a sledge in Khangalas Dsitrict, Yakutia
The capital of Khangalas District, Pokrovsk, can be accessed year-round on a 70-km asphalt road from Yakutsk. Pokrovsk sits on the banks of the Lena, the largest river contained entirely within the Russian Federation, which flows all the way through Khangalas District and on into Olekminsk and Lensk Districts before flowing out of Yakutia and into northern Irkutsk Province.
The River Lena is of course the main way to access and travel through Khangalas District, as all of the villages are located on the river banks. From Pokrovsk a year-round road continues about another 70km to Elanka village along the banks of the Lena. After that transport is by boat in summer or by driving on the frozen surface of the river in winter. The zimnik (temporary winter road on a frozen river surface) extends 1000km all the way from Elanka to Lensk. In winter there is no public transport on it, other than a few shared taxis that depart Yakutsk when full. In summer there are motorboats servicing the villages of Khangalas District and larger passenger ferries that go from Yakutsk to Olekminsk and Lensk. In very dry summers it is occasionally possible, in August, to drive along the banks of the River Lena through Khangalas District. Shared taxis start running again during this brief period.
Khangalas District is most famous for the Lena Pillars UNESCO site, where a forest of rock pillars up to 220 metres tall lines the banks of the River Lena for 40 km. The most impressive part is around 90 km after Elanka.
Around 120 km after Elanka is the quaint log-cabin village of Sinsk, inhabited mostly by Yakuts and home to a large number of horse herders. Yakut language has been very well preserved here and even the local Russians speak Yakut as a first language and Russian as a second. Almost everyone here are hunters, fishermen, horse herders and potato farmers. In summer people travel mostly on horseback when out on hunting trips or with their herds, and in winter they travel either on horseback or on horse sledges, depending on the snow conditions. Horse sledges can often be seen zipping around Sinsk and its surroundings or parked outside the local shop.
Sinsk is located on the point where the River Sinyaya flows into the River Lena. If you travel around 50km up the River Sinyaya you will get to the Sinsk Pillars. They are slightly smaller than the Lena Pillars but often considered to be more beautiful, due to the fact that the pillars are much more separated from one another and not so clumped together. They are, however, quite difficult to access. In winter they can in theory be reached by snowmobile or even car, but often the ice is too thin or melted in patches. In summer they can be reached by motorboat from Sinsk in June just after the ice has melted and the water level is high, but not later on. They can also be reached by a week-long canoe trip down the Sinyaya River from Mountain District in the north.
If you would like to book a tour to visit the horse herders and Lena Pillars of Khangalas District, please visit our site Travel Yakutia .
