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#syvatoy noy peninsula
mostly-history · 4 years
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Ice retreats from the south-western corner of Lake Baikal in Russia (May 29th, 2001).  The Angara River flows northwards from the south-western part of the lake.  Smoke and fires can be seen to the west, with the fires marked in red boxes.
Halfway down the lake, where the ice is beginning to melt, the Syvatoy Nos Peninsula sticks out from the east coast.  Syvatoy Noy means “Holy Nose”, and Russian explorers in the 1600s and 1700s used the word noy to mean “cape”.  Originally, Syvatoy Noy was used only for the south-western part of the cape of the peninsula, and a now-abandoned village on that cape.  Eventually the name was used for the entire peninsula.
The peninsula is called Hilmen Hushun (“sturgeon's muzzle”) in the Buryat language.
The Syvatoy Nos Peninsula consists of two parts – a large rocky mountainous section (the “holy nose” proper), and the Chivyrkuisky Isthmus, which connects it to the shore.  This is a relatively recent development – the peninsula was an island just a few millennia ago.  Sediments from rivers on the mainland, as well as dust carried by the wind, formed the isthmus.  The strait between the island and the mainland was thus divided into two bays: Chivyrkuisky Bay to the north, and Barguzinsky Bay to the south of the isthmus.
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