The Sikhote-Alin (, , , ) is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

in Primorsky and

Khabarovsk Krai Khabarovsk Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krai) of Russia. It is located in the Russian Far East and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. The administrative centre of the krai is the types of ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, extending about to the northeast of the Russian Pacific seaport of

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

. The highest summits are Tordoki Yani at above sea level,

Ko Mountain Ko () is a peak in the southern part of Khabarovsk Krai near the border of Primorsky Krai. It sits at 2,004 m above sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's c ...

() in Khabarovsk Krai and Anik Mountain () in

Primorsky Krai Primorsky Krai, informally known as Primorye, is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krais of Russia, krai) of Russia, part of the Far Eastern Federal District in the Russian Far East. The types of inhabited localities in Russia, ...

Geography

Sikhote-Alin is a

temperate zone In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ra ...

, though species typical of northern

taiga Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North A ...

(such as

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

and the Ussuri brown bear) coexist with the

Amur tiger The Siberian tiger or Amur tiger is a population of the tiger subspecies '' Panthera tigris tigris'' native to Northeast China, the Russian Far East, and possibly North Korea. It once ranged throughout the Korean Peninsula, but currently inhab ...

, Amur leopard, and Asiatic black bear. The region holds very few

wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the grey wolf or gray wolf, is a canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, including the dog and dingo, though gr ...

, due to competition with tigers. The longest-lived tree in the region is a millennium-old Japanese yew. It is the only known habitat of '' Sikhotealinia,'' the only living member of the beetle family Jurodidae, which have been described as the “most mysterious representatives of beetles” due to their uncertain placement within the group. Many tributaries of the

Amur River The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ''proper'' is ...

lie within the range, including the Gur.Water of Russia - Гур
/ref> The core zone can only be explored in a company of rangers.

History

The name is thought to be of Manchu origin ( mnc, alin "mountain"). In the 1910s and 1920s, Sikhote-Alin was extensively explored by Russian geographer and naturalist Vladimir Arsenyev (1872–1930), who described his adventures in several books, notably '' Dersu Uzala'' (1923), which in 1975 was turned into an Oscar-winning film by

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...

. Largely due to his exploration and advocacy, the large Sikhote-Alin and Lazo wildlife refuges were set up in 1935 to preserve the region's unusual wildlife. On February 12, 1947, one of the largest meteorite showers in recent history occurred in the mountains range. The Sikhote-Alin meteorite exploded in the atmosphere as it fell, raining many tons of metal on an elliptical region about in area. Craters were formed by the meteorites; the largest was in diameter. In 2001,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

placed "Central Sikhote-Alin" onto the

World Heritage List World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

, citing its importance for "the survival of endangered species such as the scaly-sided (Chinese) merganser, Blakiston's fish-owl and the

". The World Heritage Site had a total area of , of which the terrestrial core zone of

Sikhote-Alin The Sikhote-Alin (, , , ) is a mountain range in Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krais, Russia, extending about to the northeast of the Russian Pacific seaport of Vladivostok. The highest summits are Tordoki Yani at above sea level, Ko Mountain () ...

Zapovednik A zapovednik is an established term on the Post-Soviet states, territory of the former Soviet Union for a protected area which is kept "forever wild". It is the highest degree of environmental protection for the assigned areas, which are strictly ...

comprised . In 2018, the

World heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

was expanded by by including Bikin National Park under the name "Bikin River Valley".

References

External links

UNESCO — Sikhote-Alin World Heritage Site
- ''a
Natural Heritage Protection Fund
'
Zhuravlev, Yu. N., ed. (2000) ''Стратегия сохранения биоразнообразия Сихотэ-Алиня = A Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for the Sikhote-Alin Vladivostok: Russian Academy of Sciences, Far Eastern Branch
{{Authority control Landforms of the Russian Far East World Heritage Sites in Russia Landforms of Primorsky Krai Mountain ranges of Khabarovsk Krai Mountain ranges of Russia