The Tazheran steppe - Тажеранская степь
The Tazheran steppe (Тажеранская степь) is located along P418 road that is taking you from Irkutsk to Olkhon island. The steppe is about 45 km long and is located between Yelantsy village and Sakhyurta village near the Small Sea strait. The Tazheran steppe is around 300-400 millions years old. It is older than taiga forest surrounding it from the West. You can find 60 types of plants in one square meter of the steppe and a lot of them will be endemic to this place. It is also very ancient geologically and one square kilometer can be built of 150 different rock materials. There are several minerals that can only be found here and nowhere else in the world like the Tazheranit. In the Tazheran steppe there are natural salt lakes that are just a few kilometers away from the largest freshwater in the world. There are a few places here where petroglyphs can be found with drawings of prehistoric humans left on old rocks of the steppe or in its caves where the Neolithic people used to live. This steppe still remembers Genghis Khan who crossed it on his way to Olkhon island...