Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius

The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently is home to over 300 monks. The monastery was founded in 1345 by one of the most venerated Russian saints, Sergius of Radonezh, who built a wooden church in honour of the Holy Trinity on Makovets Hill. Early development of the monastic community is well documented in contemporary lives of Sergius and his disciples.



In 1355, Sergius introduced a charter which required the construction of auxiliary buildings, such as refectory, kitchen, and bakery. This charter was a model for Sergius numerous followers who founded more than 400 cloisters all over Russia, including the celebrated Solovetsky, Kirilov, and Simonov monasteries. St. Sergius supported Dmitri Donskoi in his struggle against the Tatars and sent two of his monks, Peresvet and Oslyabya, to participate in the Battle of Kulikovo. At the outbreak of the battle, Peresvet died in a single combat against a Tatar bogatyr. The monastery was devastated by fire, when a Tatar unit raided the area in 1408.

St. Sergius was declared patron saint of Russian state in 1422. The same year the first stone cathedral was built by a team of Serbian monks who had found refuge in the monastery after the Battle of Kosovo. The relics of St. Sergius are seen in this cathedral, dedicated to Holy Trinity. The greatest icon painters of medieval Russia, Andrei Rublev and Daniil Chyorny, were summoned to decorate the cathedral with frescoes. In 1476, Ivan III invited several Pskovian masters to build the church of the Holy Ghost. This graceful structure is one of the few remaining examples of a Russian church topped with a belltower. The interior contains the earliest specimens of the use of glazed tiles for decoration. In the early 16th century, Vasily III added the Nikon annex and the Serapion tent, where several of Sergius' disciples were interred.

It took 26 years to construct the six-pillared Assumption Cathedral, which was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible in 1559. As the monastery grew into one of the wealthiest landowners in Russia, the woods where it had stood were cut over and a village sprang up near the monastery walls. It gradually developed into the modern town of Sergiyev Posad. The cloister itself was a notable centre of chronicle-writing and icon painting. Just opposite the monastery walls St. Paraskevas Convent was established, among whose buildings St. Paraskevas Church, Introduction Church, and a 17th-century chapel over St. Paraskevas well are still visible.

In 1550s, a wooden palisade surrounding the cloister was replaced with 1.5 km long stone walls, featuring twelve towers, which helped the monastery to withstand a celebrated 16-month Polish Lithuanian siege in 1608–1610. A shell-hole in the cathedral gates is preserved as a reminder of Wladyslaw IV's abortive siege in 1618. By the end of the 17th century, when young Peter I twice found refuge within the monastery from his enemies, numerous buildings had been added. These include a small baroque palace of the patriarchs, noted for its luxurious interiors, and a royal palace, with its facades painted in checkerboard design. The refectory of St. Sergius, covering 510 square meters and also painted in dazzling checkerboard design, used to be the largest hall in Russia.



In 1744, Empress Elizabeth conferred on the cloister the dignity of the Lavra. The metropolitan of Moscow was henceforth also the Archimandrite of the Lavra. Elizabeth particularly favoured the Trinity and annually proceeded afoot from Moscow to the cloister. Throughout the 19th century, the Lavra maintained its status as the richest Russian monastery. A seminary founded in 1742 was replaced by an ecclesiastical academy in 1814. The monastery boasted a supreme collection of manuscripts and books. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviet government closed the lavra in 1920. In 1930, monastery bells, including the Tsar-Bell of 65 tons, were destroyed. Pavel Florensky and his followers could hardly prevent the authorities from stealing and selling the sacristy collection but overall many valuables were lost or transferred to other collections.


In 1945, following Joseph Stalin's temporary tolerance of the church during World War II, the Lavra was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church. On April 16, 1946 divine service was renewed at the Assumption Cathedral. The lavra continued as the seat of Moscow Patriarchy until 1983, when the patriarch was allowed to settle at the Danilov Monastery in Moscow. After that, the monastery continued as a prime centre of religious education. Important restoration works were conducted in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1993, the Trinity Lavra was inscribed on the UN World Heritage List. The Lavra has a number of outreach offices in its vicinity and throughout Russia. The Lavras hieromonks have manned a number of sketes at remote locations, as well as the Trinity Church on the King George Island in the Antarctic.

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Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal is the worlds second most voluminous lake, after the Caspian Sea. It is the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world with an average depth of 744.4 m or 2,442 ft and contains a total of roughly 20 percent of the world's surface fresh water. Lake Baikal is one of the famous tourist attraction and travel destination. The important aspect of Lake Baikal is explained in world tour guides in detail below. Located in the south of the Russian region of Siberia between Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Buryat Republic to the southeast, near the city of Irkutsk, the body of water is also known as the Pearl of Siberia.


Lake Baikal is the deepest and among the clearest of all lakes in the world. At more than 25 million years old, Baikal is also the world's oldest lake. Like Lake Tanganyika, Lake Baikal was formed as an ancient rift valley, having the typical long crescent shape with a surface area of 31,722 km2 or 12,248 sq mi, less than that of Lake Superior or Lake Victoria. Baikal is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, two thirds of which can be found nowhere else in the world and was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is also home to Buryat tribes who reside on the eastern side of Lake Baikal, rearing goats, camels, cattle and sheep, where the regional temperature varies from a minimum of -19°C or -2.2°F in winter to maximum of 14°C or 57.2°F in summer.

Lake Baikal was known as the "North Sea" in historical Chinese texts. It was situated in the then Xiongnu territory. Very little was known to Europeans about the lake until the Russian expansion into the area in the 17th century. The first Russian explorer to reach Lake Baikal was Kurbat Ivanov in 1643. The Trans-Siberian railway was built between 1896 and 1902. The scenic railway around the southwestern end of Lake Baikal required 200 bridges and 33 tunnels; until its completion, a train ferry transported railcars across the lake for a number of years.

Lake Baikal is in a rift valley, created by the Baikal Rift Zone, where the crust of the earth is pulling apart. At 636 kilometres long and 79 kilometres wide, Lake Baikal has the largest surface area of any freshwater lake in Asia and is the deepest lake in the world. The bottom of the lake is 1,186.5 metres below sea level, but below this lies some 7 kilometres or 4.3 mi of sediment, placing the rift floor some 8–11 kilometres more than 5 miles below the surface. The deepest continental rift on Earth. In geological terms, the rift is young and active it widens about two cm per year. The fault zone is also seismically active; there are hot springs in the area and notable earthquakes every few years. The lake drains into the Angara tributary of the Yenisei.

Its age is estimated at 25–30 million years, making it one of the most ancient lakes in geological history. It is unique among large, high-latitude lakes, in that its sediments have not been scoured by overriding continental ice sheets. U.S. and Russian studies of core sediment in the 1990s provide a detailed record of climatic variation over the past 250,000 years. Longer and deeper sediment cores are expected in the near future. Lake Baikal is furthermore the only confined fresh water lake in which direct and indirect evidence of gas hydrates exists.

The lake is completely surrounded by mountains. The Baikal Mountains on the north shore and the taiga are technically protected as a national park. It contains 27 islands; the largest, Olkhon, is 72 kilometres long and is the fourth-largest lake-bound island in the world. The lake is fed by as many as three hundred and thirty inflowing rivers. The main ones draining directly into Baikal are the Selenga River, the Barguzin River, the Upper Angara River, the Turka River, the Sarma River and the Snezhnaya River. It is drained through a single outlet, the Angara River.

Lake Baikal hosts 1,085 species of plants and 1,550 species and varieties of animals. Epischura baikalensis is endemic to Lake Baikal and the dominating zooplankton species there, making up 80 to 90 percent of total biomass. The Baikal Seal or nerpa is found throughout Lake Baikal. The two important species of Lake Baikal are golomyanka or Baikal oil fish. These long finned, translucent fish normally live in depths of 200 to 500 metres and are primary prey of Baikal seal. The Baikal grayling, a fast swimming salmonid, popular among anglers and the Baikal sturgeon, are both important endemic species with commercial value

The lake called the Pearl of Siberia drew investors from the tourist industry as energy revenues sparked an economic boom. Viktor Grigorov's Grand Baikal in Irkutsk is one of the investors, who planned to build three hotels creating 570 jobs. In 2007, the Russian government declared the Baikal region a special economic zone. The popular resort of Listvyanka is home to the seven-story Hotel Mayak. Baikal was also declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996.

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Iguazu Falls

Iguazu Falls is waterfall of the Iguazu River located on the border of the Brazilian state of Parana and the Argentine province of Misprision. It is also called as Iguassu Falls, or Iguacu Falls. The falls divide the river into the upper and lower Iguazu. Their name comes from the Guarani or Tupi words and uasu. Legend has it that a god planned to marry a beautiful aborigine named Naipi, who fled with her mortal lover Taroba in a canoe. The first European to find the falls was the Spanish Conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541, after whom one of the falls in the Argentine side is named. The falls were rediscovered by Boselli at the end of the nineteenth century, and one of the Argentine falls is named after him.


Iguazu Falls was short-listed as a candidate to be one of the New 7 Wonders of Nature by the New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation. As of February 2009 it was ranking fifth in Group F, the category for lake, rivers, and waterfalls. The waterfall system consists of 275 falls along 2.7 kilometers or 1.67 miles of the Iguazu River. Some of the individual falls are up to 82 meters or 269 ft in height, though the majority are about 64 metres or 210 ft. The Devil's Throat, a U-shaped, 82-meter-high, 150-meter-wide and 700-meter-long or 490 by 2300 feet cataract, and marks the border between Argentina and Brazil. Two thirds of the falls are within Argentine territory. About 900 meters of the 2.7-kilometer length does not have water flowing over it. The edge of the basalt cap recedes only 3 mm or 0.1 in per year. The water of the lower Iguazu collects in a canyon that drains into the Parana River at Argentina, shortly downstream from the Itaipu dam.

The falls can be reached from the two main towns on either side of the falls Foz do Iguacu in the Brazilian state of Parana, and Puerto Iguazu in the Argentine province of Misiones as well as from Ciudad del Este Paraguay on the other side of the Parana river from Foz do Iguacu. The falls are shared by the Iguazu National Park Argentina and Iguacu National Park. These parks were designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1984 and 1987, respectively.

On the Brazilian side there is a long walkway along the canyon with an extension to the lower base of the Devils Throat. From Foz do Iguacu airport the park can be reached by taxi R$ 15-17 or bus no 120 to entrance of the park. There is an entrance fee to the park. Free frequent buses are provided to various points within the park. The park opens at 9 am and closes at 5.30 pm. The town of Foz do Iguacu is about 20 kms away and the airport is in between the park and the town.

The Argentine access is facilitated by the Rainforest Ecological Train, which brings visitors to different walkways. The Paseo Garganta del Diablo is a one-kilometer-long trail that brings the visitor directly over the falls of the Devil's Throat. Other walkways allow access to the elongated stretch of falls on the Argentine side and to the ferry that connects to the San Martin Island. The fall area provides opportunities for water sports and rock climbing.

Upon seeing Iguazu, the United States First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed Poor Niagara! Iguazu is also often compared with Southern Africa Victoria Falls which separates Zambia and Zimbabwe. Iguazu is wider, but because it is split into about 270 discrete falls and large islands, Victoria is the largest curtain of water in the world, at over 1,600 m or 5,249 ft wide and over 100 m or 328 ft in height. The only wider falls are extremely large rapid-like falls such as the Boyoma Falls. With the flooding of the Guaira Falls in 1982, Iguazu currently has the second greatest average annual flow of any waterfall in the world, after Niagara, with an average rate of 1746 m³/s.

The water falling over Iguazu in peak flow has a surface area of about 40 Ha or 1.3 million ft² whilst Victoria in peak flow has a surface area of over 55 ha or 1.8 million ft². By comparison, Niagara has a surface area of under 18.3 ha or 600,000 ft². Victoria's annual peak flow is also greater than Iguazus annual peak 9,100 m³/s versus 6,500 though in times of extreme flood the two have recorded very similar maximum water discharge. Niagaras average flow is about 2,400 m³/s, although an all-time peak of 8,269 has been recorded. Iguazu and Victoria fluctuate more greatly in their flow rate. Mist rises between 30 metres or 98 ft and 150 m or 492 ft from Iguazus Devils Throat, and over 300 m or 984 ft above Victoria.

Iguazu, however, affords better views and walkways and its shape allows for spectacular vistas. At one point a person can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls. The Devils Throat has water pouring into it from three sides. Likewise, because Iguazu is split into many relatively small falls, one can view these a portion at a time. Victoria does not allow this, as it is essentially one waterfall that falls into a canyon and is too immense to appreciate at once.

As of July 24, 2006 a severe drought in South America had caused the river feeding the falls to become parched, reducing the amount of water flowing over the falls to 300 m³ or 80,000 gallons per second, down from the normal flow of 1,300 m³/s to 1,500 m³/s. By early December, the flow was spectacular again, according to visiting tourists. This was unusual, as normally dry periods last only a few weeks.

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