«Spring in Crimea» — Iosif Krachkovsky

💐 Iosif Krachkovsky often came to Crimea in spring and autumn to paint the local landscapes. He was especially interested in flowering trees, gardens and old southern estates. In the painting «Spring in Crimea» he captured Crimea at the time of year when everything around begins to bloom.

☀ Interestingly, Krachkovsky's Crimean landscapes were liked not only by the public: his works were bought by Emperor Nicholas II, and some paintings adorned the Livadia Palace. Southern nature became one of the artist's main themes, and he returned to it over many years.

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Valley of Ghosts on the slope of Mount Demerdzhi

The valley is located on the western slope of South Demerdzhi, near the village of Luchistoye and Alushta. The rocks were formed from Upper Jurassic conglomerates under the action of weathering and ancient landslides: wind and water gradually "sculpted" individual stone towers and figures out of the rock.

🥼 The tallest of them is the "Giant", about 25 m high. Many of the stones have their own names: "Devil's Finger", "Blacksmith", "Maria", "Camel", "Eagle".

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The Tsar Cannon — a record-holder in world artillery

🔫 The Tsar Cannon is an ancient piece of artillery cast in Moscow in the 16th century and has become one of the symbols of the Moscow Kremlin. Initially the cannon stood by Red Square, and later it was moved inside the Kremlin. The cannon was created by master Andrey Chokhov by order of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who is depicted on the barrel on horseback. The calibre of the weapon is about 890 mm, and its weight is approximately 39 tonnes. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Tsar Cannon is considered the largest cannon in the world by calibre.

💥 Discussions continue to this day as to whether the Tsar Cannon ever fired. For a long time it was considered an exclusively symbolic weapon, however, a 1980 study gave grounds to suppose that at least one shot could have been fired from it. There is no definitive answer to this question.

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Ivan Shishkin — the painter who knew how to paint the forest

🌿 Ivan Shishkin is a 19th-century Russian painter, famous for his landscapes. One of his most famous paintings is «Rye» (1878). It depicts a golden field with a road disappearing into the distance and pine trees on the horizon. Shishkin painted this landscape after a trip to his native places, near Yelabuga.

🎄 A completely different mood is found in the painting «In the Wild North…» (1891). A lonely pine tree stands on a snowy rock amid the nocturnal cold. The work is connected with Mikhail Lermontov's poem, which begins with the line «In the wild north stands alone…». Here Shishkin shows not the summer abundance of nature, but solitude and silence.

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🇷🇺 Psakho Canyon in Sochi — a system of two very different gorges: a dry stone labyrinth and a wet channel with turquoise water

The canyon is located in the Adler district of Sochi, in Sochi National Park. It is divided into the Sukhoy and Mokry canyons: the first is an ancient riverbed without water, the second is an active channel with water.

The Sukhoy Canyon is a deep tectonic fault with high limestone walls that were once the bottom of the ancient Tethys Ocean. Here you can see rock strata, arches and corridors, as well as traces of ancient life — mollusc fossils.

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❤️From Russia with love