Altai Mountains, Russia

Another postcard from Russia... This one is from my new postcard pal, Arseniy.



The postcard shows the Upper Multa Lake in Altai Mountains. The Altai Mountains are a mountain range in central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come together, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their sources. The Altai Mountains are known as the original locus of the speakers of Turkic as well as other members of the proposed Altaic language group.

A vast area of 16,178 km² - Altai and Katun Natural Reserves, Lake Teletskoye, Mount Belukha and the Ukok Plateau - comprise a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site entitled Golden Mountains of Altai. As stated in the UNESCO description of the site, "the region represents the most complete sequence of altitudinal vegetation zones in central Siberia, from steppe, forest-steppe, mixed forest, subalpine vegetation to alpine vegetation". While making its decision, UNESCO also cited Russian Altai's importance for preservation of the globally endangered mammals, such as snow leopard and the Altai argali. Siberian Ibex also live in these mountains.

The photo was taken by Pavel Filatov, you can see more of his STUNNING photography here.



The bigger stamp is from the Europa series, this year's theme being Children's Books and this is the Russian contribution to the series. The smaller stamp is from a set of 12 definitive stamps issued in 2009, depicting Russian Kremlins. This one shows the Moscow Kremlin.