The whole Republic of Karelia is one big interesting place. There are 4 thousand cultural, historical and natural objects in Karelia that tourists can visit. Not even a year will be enough to get to know all of them properly.
Karelia is a Russian corner of untouched pristine and beautiful nature. These places are famous all over the world, everyone who comes here gets into a fairy tale. You simply cannot find uninteresting places here, however, as well as ugly ones.
Kizhi
The oldest largest museum-reserve of wooden art is located in Karelia. Kizhi is a small group of islands where one of the first open-air museums is located. This reserve is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The museum covers an area of 10 thousand hectares. The first exhibits are the Transfiguration Church with 22 domes, the Intercession Church and the bell tower.
Now many buildings have been brought to this place, including the most ancient Russian wooden church - "The Resurrection of Lazarus". The workers of the ethnographic museum revived the folk craft of the 17th and 18th centuries; about 30 thousand exhibits for the exhibition have been collected here.
Petroglyphs
In Karelia there are petroglyphs - ancient images on rocks. People knocked out these drawings with quartz bumpers to a depth of about 3 mm. The drawings are located almost horizontally on the coastal rocks, they were created in 4-3 millennia BC. At the moment, scientists have been able to figure out the meaning of only half of such images, but it is very interesting to look at it.
Until now, people find more and more new drawings. They say that if you look at the petroglyphs from a certain angle at sunset, it seems as if the animals depicted on them are moving.
The fauna of Karelia is also diverse. Here you can meet 270 species of birds, wolves, bears, lynxes, moose, deer and wild boars.
Waterfalls
Karelia is a country of lakes, rivers, streams and streams. Many fascinating pictures open up to the traveler on the banks of rivers and lakes. Numerous waterfalls of Karelia are famous. For example, the Kivach waterfall on the Suna River. The height of the waterfall is about 10, 5 meters, the river, squeezed between the rocks by a stormy stream, breaks free and falls down, breaking into foam.
When Emperor Alexander II visited the Kivach waterfall, a good road was laid to the reserve to the waterfall, which the reserve workers still maintain.
Canyons
Another amazing view opens up to the Marble Canyon in the Ruskeala Park. Previously, marble was mined in this quarry, now emerald water splashes in it, over which rocks up to 25 meters high hang. An incredible view, exotic lichens and mosses, pristine nature and a bowl created by human hands attracts thousands of tourists.
