As the free travel guide, Wikivoyage covers all aspects of sightseeing and activities, with the primary focus on writing individual articles about travel destinations all around the world. Sourcing of information for these articles requires detailed knowledge of interesting, curious, or memorable places that are often natural objects or cultural heritage monuments. Lists of such monuments are of immense help in collecting and navigating information about the local sights.

At Russian Wikivoyage, the idea of compiling lists of natural monuments and cultural heritage was triggered by our interest in less-known, rarely visited, and poorly described parts of Russia. We created the largest database of Russian cultural heritage, which is part of the international Wikimedia database with over 1.5 million monuments from all around the globe. We also host the most comprehensive list of Russian natural monuments. Large Wikimedia photo competitions, Wiki Loves Earth (WLE) and Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM), crucially rely on such lists, which are used as the basis for uploading pictures and arranging them into a structured, geo-tagged, and re-usable photobank. Since 2015, Russian Wikivoyage organizes WLE and WLM in Russia using the lists of natural monuments and cultural heritage that have been created and are constantly improved by our team.

In addition to the Russian lists, we host lists of cultural heritage and natural monuments in other countries, especially those countries where information in the Russian language may be useful for locals and travelers. We seek to make such lists multi-lingual, but this is a slow and tedious process. If you found some of our lists useful, you are welcome to join our efforts in updating, extending, and possibly translating them.

Cultural heritage

• Russia (Russian language only)
• Kazakhstan (currently, in Russian only)

Natural monuments

• Russia (Russian language only)
• Kazakhstan: English, Russian, Kazakh
• Kyrgyzstan: Russian
• Moldova: Russian
• Tajikistan: Russian
• Turkmenistan: Russian
• Uzbekistan: Russian

How it works?

All of the following applies to multi-lingual lists only

Lists are split by region according to the official administrative division of a country. You can explore natural monuments by choosing the region of your interest, or see them all on the attached map.

Which natural monuments are listed? Those with the protected area status: nature reserves, sanctuaries, national parks, nature parks, botanical gardens and arboreta. Additionally, we list "individual" natural monuments like caves, mountains, waterfalls, cliffs, as long as they possess protected area status or occur inside a larger protected area. We may also include those monuments that had this status in the past or have a clear potential to acquire it in the future, but such decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

All information in the lists is taken from Wikidata and can not be changed directly at Wikivoyage. However, you can (and should!) let us know of possible errors and should also feel free to suggest improvements and extensions of our lists.

If you see an error, follow the Ask a question link at the top of the respective list and tell us which changes are necessary. We will process your request and make changes, as appropriate. We will be especially grateful for exact geo-coordinates of natural monuments. They will be of great help to other travelers.

If you would like to propose additional natural monuments for our lists, use the same link Ask a question and tell us some details: location of the monument, type of the monument, and reasons for adding it to the list. Legal information (laws or decrees that justify the protected area status) would be especially useful.

Map index: colored box in the list and colored pins on the map identify different types of natural monuments,

1National park1Nature reserve1Nature sanctuary1Natural monument1Botanical garden1Arboretum1Nature reservation