The Mystery of Mangazeya. What has already been explored and what pages of the Russian Arctic have not been discovered yet

The presentation of the historical-geographical reconstruction on the journey of the domestic pioneers of the Far North “The Mystery of Mangazeya - 2019” will take place in the representational office of Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in Saint Petersburg on the 12th of February. The head of the expedition, a traveler, a researcher, a photojournalist Pavel Nefyodov and the scientific director of the project, candidate of historical sciences Vyacheslav Kalinin will tell about this large-scale event dedicated to history of Yamal and Russia. Mangazeya Route is the way from the European part of the country to the medieval ancient settlement of Mangazeya, which in the XVII century existed on the Taz River, now it is the territory of the Autonomous Okrug.

Last summer the reconnaissance stage of the expedition took place. The participants overcame more than one thousand kilometers, and from the ancient settlement Mangazeya they almost reached the Yenisei Volok (portage), from where the path went to New Mangazeya (the settlement Staroturukhansk, Krasnoyarsk Krai). Exactly along this way the domestic pioneers of the XVII century reached the Yenisei River. Famous Yerofey Khabarov, the conqueror of the Amur River region and a resident of Mangazeya, went along this route to the unknown East in the early seventeenth century.

The expedition of 2019 will be even larger. Within this expedition the travelers are going to reach the Yenisei Volok and to conduct archaeological exploration on its place. They also plan to go along “the route of Yerofey Khabarov” to New Mangazeya at the mouth of the Turukhan River near its confluence with the Yenisei.

Within the presentation Pavel Nefyodov and Vyacheslav Kalinin will share information about how the preparation for the expedition is going, what goals and objectives its participants set for themselves. Among the main ideas of the expedition the participants want to tell people of Russia about beauty and uniqueness of nature of the North, to reveal the forgotten pages of history of the Russian Arctic, to popularize the most interesting geographical, natural and tourist sites of Yamal, to demonstrate the best achievements of culture of northern peoples. As the representational office of Yamal informs, the photo-exposition telling about the expedition “The Mystery of Mangazeya - 2018” will be demonstrated within the presentation.