Volkovysk, chalk quarries: all about the "Belarusian Maldives"

Travelers, lovers of wildlife and thrills do not bypass the attention of the chalk quarries under the Belarusian city of Volkovysk. Why are the latter so attractive, why they are called "Byelorussian Maldives", is it worth planning a holiday in this place?

What attracts the Vaukavysk quarries

Volkovysk's chalk quarries were nicknamed the Byelorussian Maldives, a paradise for photographers, and the Belarusian tourist Mecca. In addition to all, this landmark is "wild", as rest here is not only not provided, but even banned. But this place continues to attract thousands of fans of tent holidays every year.

The reason for this is an unusual and even fantastic panorama for Central European terrain: azure, even bright emerald, richly turquoise water filling the quarries (thanks to the chalk remaining on their bottom), high snow-white banks, cliffs covered with young trees, huge boulders of allegedly alien origin . It is enough to look at the Cretaceous careers of Volkovysk in the photo, so that a desire to see these places can be seen firsthand.

Careers, sprawled on the square, roughly equal to three hundred football fields, is truly a paradise for savages. Travelers admire the surrounding surreal nature, fry shish kebabs, sing songs by the fire, sunbathe, bathe in turquoise waters, make fascinating photographs (some Belarusian musicians have chosen these places to shoot their clips).

In addition, the shallow careers of Volkovysk are interesting:

• Divers - local waters are not inferior to the Red Sea or Maldivian;
• Extreme - steep boulders, cliffs, rather long (1-4 km) and depth of quarries (15-40 m - depth of water, 40 m - height of the mound) attracts jumpers with and without tarzanka;
• Fishermen - a number of quarries are filled with fish.

Over the years, hundreds of thousands of tourists have visited their careers.

Volkovyska Cretaceous Career: how to get there

How to get there by car? It is necessary to go along the P44 highway to the city of Volkovysk, then follow the signs to Krasnoselsky settlement - the quarries are directly next to it.

For those traveling without cars, the following scheme is useful:

1. Train or train, following the direction "Minsk-Baranovichi".
2. Train to Volkovysk.
3. In Volkovysk, change to the suburban bus until pg. Krasnoselsky (ask to stop in front of the village of Novoselki).
4. Then follow the navigator on foot to the destination.

Coordinates of chalk quarries (Volkovysk) on the map: 53.283386, 24.488854.

The history of the amazing countryside

Such beloved careers are artificially created reservoirs formed as a result of the mining of the mineral - chalk. It has been conducted for more than a hundred years - since 1914. The richness of Belarus' land by chalk deposits is a consequence of the fact that once its territory was the bottom of a gigantic World Ocean.

The sight of the village of Krasnoselsky is also the amazing silicon mines that our ancestors cut down about 5 thousand years ago for the extraction of a breed widely used in the production of tools. However, today they are mothballed, and the plan of the museum dedicated to them remained just a project on paper.

Vaukavysk's careers: terribly beautiful

Since the tourist vacations near Volkovysk open-cast mines are not organized, there are no places for picnic, a tent camp, as well as biotoilets, a source of drinking water, rescuers on the shore. And the garbage after some tourists turned some beautiful slopes into a natural landfill.

When approaching the careers of travelers, he tries to stop the sign "Danger Zone", which they safely ignore. But in vain. According to the rescuers, people are drowning every year. There is also the possibility of landslides, because the "walls" of quarries are not strengthened. Such attractive, seemingly affectionate emerald waters are horrified by the result of the tests - they contain the volume of strains of Escherichia coli, one hundred times exceeding the permissible! A chalk, which is dissolved in the waters of the quarry, not only dries the skin, but, getting into the lungs, settles in them, which can easily provoke asthma.

Volkovysk's chalk quarries are also a technical zone. The cars of tourists interfere with the passage of office equipment of the enterprise "Krasnoselskstroimaterialy", which is the owner of these lands. The management of the company is determined to make this zone closed to travelers.

Careers of Volokovyska today

Although there were discussions about re-planning the territory of quarries into a full recreation zone, "improving" the waters, smoothing the banks, the projects remained only projects. In 2015, the reclamation of quarries was planned, which is designed to ruin their beautiful appearance: some lenses were decided to smooth out, some - to dig. The main road of tourists was ransacked with impassable ditches. The purpose of this, according to the authorities, is the prevention of accidents.

As an alternative, there were quarries under Bereza, Luban, Slutsk and Soligorsk.

Thus, today you can admire only the remnants of that beauty, which was recently famous for the Cretaceous career of Vaukavysk. Instead of costly upgrading of the unusual terrain for tourists, the local authorities chose a course for its destruction in the name of safety of "wild" vacationers.