The Icy Beach Of Buluus, The Existence Of Which Is Hard To Believe

Everyone knows the sandy and pebble beaches where we spend our sea holidays. What if we tell you that an icy beach is no worse? If you don’t believe it, then come to Yakutia, to Khangalassky ulus, where Buluus is located — the most unusual ice beach in the world.

The ice beach, or rather, the Buluus glacier, is located 100 km from Yakutsk, which is very close on the scale of this region. That is why many tourists come here to see the unique natural monument. The fact that Buluus is a beach is not a joke at all, because in summer it is often as hot in these parts as in Yalta or Sochi.

During the short summer, the air temperature in this area of the Sakha Republic rises to +350C, but the glacier withstands it, only slightly melting from above. The icy beach, covering an area of more than 1,000 hectares, lies on a ten-meter layer of permafrost, feeding it with cold even in the strongest summer heat.

You will be surprised, but Buluus translates from Yakut as “glacier”. How did this little-known wonder of the world appear outside Yakutia? It turned out that the glacier was formed thanks to the lake of the same name, which is fed by many springs. There are both conventional and hot water sources among them.

So much water arrives in the lake that it freezes in layers and blocks that rush up, forming a solid thickness. The hot summer leaves wounds on the body of the glacier in the form of thawed areas, grottos and even caves. But glaciologists studying the ice have determined that Buluus has not completely melted for many thousands of years.

The icy beach is surrounded by beautiful pine forests, which adds to the charm of the tourist site. In recent years, the natural curiosity has been put on commercial rails and the inspection of the glacier has been paid for. The money received from tourists is used to maintain cleanliness in the protected area and create infrastructure around the rapidly gaining popularity of the curiosity.