0966 RUSSIA (Krasnoyarsk Krai) - Putorana Plateau (UNESCO WHS)

The Putorana Plateau is a high-lying basalt plateau, a mountainous area at the northwestern edge of the Central Siberian Plateau, to the south from Taymyr Peninsula. It is composed of Siberian Traps, which form a large region of volcanic rock, and the highest mountain in the range is Mount Kamen (1,700m). To protect the world's largest herd of reindeer as well as snow sheep, in 1988 was established the Putorana Nature Reserve (situated about 100 km north of the Arctic Circle), which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2010, as "a complete set of subarctic and arctic ecosystems in an isolated mountain range, including pristine taiga, forest tundra, tundra and arctic desert systems, as well as untouched cold-water lake and river systems".

In the area are more than 25,000 lakes, which are between 180-420m deep, and together they form the second largest store of fresh water in Russia by capacity after Lake Baikal. They form whole ecosystems, spread over lots of tens of kilometers. Actually "Putorana” comes from the Ewenki language and translates to "the country of lakes with steep banks". Russia's geographical center, Lake Vivi, is situated on the plate. In the postcard is Lake Lama, of tectonic origin, with 100 km long and up to 20 km wide, investigated only in 1921.

About the stamps
The first two stamps are part of a series dedicated to Russian Kremlins, about which I wrote here. The last stamp, depicting the painting The Bouquet by Viktor Maly (2005), is part of the third set of the series The contemporary art of Russia, about which I wrote here. 

References
Putorana Plateau - Wikipedia
Putorana Plateau - UNESCO official website

sender: Eugene Volodin (direct swap)
sent from Ussuriisk (Primorsky Krai / Russia), on 14.12.2013
photo: Sergey Drozd