«Where do I take you?» — I was asked by the taxi driver when I got into a car. «Take me to the mammoths!» — I said. I can imagine the look of the taxi driver in Moscow if he was given such an address!

However, the polite taxi-driver of Khanty-Mansiysk did not even hesitate — he accepted the request without any questions

Story by Maria Fominykh

One of the most important touristic sight-seeings of the city and the most favorite resting place for the locals — «Archeopark» that, as analogue to the «Jurassic Park», can be called «quaternary» or «antropogenic» park. The first sculptural group of 7 mammoths was maintained on the toe slabs in 2007 in the capital of Ugra. The «height» of the biggest mammoth is 8 meters.

The opening of the «Archeopark» took place in the autumn of 2008. By the end of 2009 the other four mammoths were set up as well as such compositions as «Wolves pack», «The encampment of aborigines », «Primeval oxen», «Fleecy rhinoceros», «Cave bears », «Cave lion » and  «Large-horned deer». The last sculptures «Beavers» and «Herd of ancient horses» were set up in the park on the eve of the World Chess Olympiad in September 2010. Unfortunately, not all the sculptures are lit during the night time: for example, huge wolves are wildly looking at mid-night visitors from the darkness. What is more important is that mammoths are represented in all their beauty — lit by colorful soffits.

A short notice for curious readers: mammoths (lat. Mammuthus) — is a disappeared specie from the family of elephants that existed in the Quaternary period. Some of the species reached the height of 5.5 meters and the mass of 10−12 tons. Therefore, mammoths are twice as heavy as the biggest modern ground mammals — African elephants. Mammoths vanished about 10 000 years ago during the last Ice age.

It is interesting that the Ugorian mammoths are far to be the first monuments to these ancient mammals. The first mammoth sculpture was set up in the year of 1841 on the edge of Kuleshovka village of Nedrigailovsky region of Sumskaya Oblast in Ukraine. The monument was dedicated to the well-preserved skeleton of the mammoth that was found on 1839.

This is the approximate natural way the popular baby mammoth looked in the Soviet cartoon. However, the one in the «Archeopark» is surrounded by its family and thus differs from its animated «brother».