Ubsunur Hollow

Ubsunur Hollow (also spelled Ubsu-Nur) is a fragile mountain basin or depression located on the territorial border of Mongolia and the Republic of Tuva in the Russian Federation. It is part of a combination of raised lands and depressions located throughout the Tannu-Ola and Altai mountainous regions. Here, the world's most northern desert meets the northern hemisphere's most southern tundra zone.

Archeology

Ubsunur Hollow's importance lies chiefly in its cultural heritage and is the most important place in Central Asia for its concentration of unstudied archaeological artifacts, especially its burial mounds, rock carvings, and stone sculptures - remnants of Middle Age settlements and Buddhist temples. There are as many as 20,000 burial mounds, many older than the Egyptian pyramids. [cite web
author=
year=
url=http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/en/campaigns/world-natural-heritage/the-ubsunur-hollow
title=The Ubsunur Hollow
publisher=Greenpeace
accessdate=2008-02-07]

Ubsunur Hollow was nominated as a World Heritage Site in 1995 as "one of the largest intact watersheds in Central Asia where 40,000 archaeological sites can be found from historically famous nomadic tribes such as the Scythians, the Turks and the Huns." [cite web
url=http://ces.iisc.ernet.in/hpg/envis/doc-russia-wh.html
title=Russia's First World Heritage Site
publisher=
accessdate=2006-12-31 ]

Animal life

The hollow is located on the border between Mongolia and Russia and has an area of just over one million hectares. [cite web
author=
year=
url=http://www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/uvs_nuur.htm
title=Uvs Nuur Basin, Russian Federation (Tuva) & Mongolia
publisher=United Nations Environment Programme
accessdate=2008-02-05] The terrain encompasses a wide variation of climates, including glaciers, alpine tundra, sub-alpine meadows, and vast mountain taiga areas. There are also forested steppes, treeless steppes, semi-arid deserts, and ever shifting sand dunes. It is a scenic and highly diversified natural habitat.

Due to its location on the cusp of the Siberian and Central Asian-Mongolian terrains, the flora and fauna of the hollow exhibit a high biodiversity for mid-latitudes. Animal species that inhabit both mountains and tundra, such as the Siberian roe deer, and Altai snowcock, flourish here. The endangered snow leopard is also present, as well as taiga dwellers such as the Caspian red deer, lynx and wolverine. Steppe dwellers include the Mongolian lark, demoiselle crane and long-tailed Siberian squirrel. Desert inhabitants include the bustard and midday gerbil. The bird species alone number some 359. Since the hollow is a protected area, many ancient species extinct in other regions have found refuge here.

Population

The population density is low in the Ubsunur Hollow. The lack of industry and the reliance of the inhabitants on traditional ways of life, such as nomadic pasturing, have had little impact on the landscape and have allowed the ecosystem to remain relatively free from the negative effects that human presence can impose.cite web
url=http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/en/campaigns/world-natural-heritage/the-ubsunur-hollow
title=The Ubsunur Hollow
publisher=Greenpeace
accessdate=2006-12-31 ] Both the Russian [cite web
author=
year=
url=http://www.unesco.ru/eng/articles/2004/stasya03022006104947.php
title=The Uvs Nuur Basin: Russian-Mongolian cooperation for Conservation of the World Heritage]
publisher=unesco
accessdate=2008-02-05] and the Mongolian parts of the hollow are home to nomadic herders.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.greenpeace.org/russia/en/campaigns/world-natural-heritage/the-ubsunur-hollow The Ubsunur Hollow]
* [http://www.isar.org/pubs/ST/RUubsunur49.html Ubsu-Nur Accepted into World Network of Biosphere Reserves]
* [http://www.nomadom.net/russia/tuva.htm Singing Stones - The Republic of Tuva]
* [http://130.166.124.2/world_atlas/6/files/6-1040-full.html Ubsu Nur satellite photo]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=cHTzFmOZE44C&pg=PA599&lpg=PA599&dq=ubsunur+hollow&source=web&ots=MEyX1h_F3P&sig=tHMUqT9haVQhgd89DVsMmjKpAUURussian Federation Legislative Survey: June 1990-December 1993]
* [http://books.google.com/books?id=p0kEAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA153&lpg=PA153&dq=lop+desert&source=web&ots=SDwsjHtut_&sig=H5AcBtT3dyjO5yTDZeXD8Z1PPig#PPA153,M1 Surveying the Lop Nor]