WASTELAND

The mining town of Karabasch, situated about 1,800 km east of Moscow in the Ural Mountains, is one of the World's most polluted locations. A copper smelting plant is situated in the town since 1910, which is emiting extremly large amounts of pollution. 

Within 100 years, the factory has the surrounding area extended burned and covered with slag. Per year of operation, it encounters more than 180 tons of gas in the atmosphere, the back falls as acid rain in the local area back to earth. For decades, the soil in and around Karabasch is contaminated by high concentrations of highly toxic metals like lead, arsenic, nickel, cobalt, cadmium, copper and zinc, some of which exceed the maximum permitted limit for the two-to 150-fold. The iron content exceeds the norm by a factor of 500. In 1996 the town was officially recognized by the Russian government as a "ecological disaster zone", the UNESCO lists Karabasch as on of the most polluted locations on earth.

BORDERLINES [I]

We used the holidays of last week for a "short" trip to the Ural (with a distance of about 1,900 km between Moscow and Yekaterinburg "short" is relative…)…

The borderline between Europe and Asia at the River Ural near Magnetogorsk

During our trip we crossed for many times the borderline between Europe and Asia. We visited beautiful places and locations which are more close to a vision of apocalypse. We went to many different towns, one of them more then 4,000 years old, another one founded just 80 years ago. And we got many impressions of this part of Russia, which lays on the borderline between two continents.

This is the first part of our journey to the edge of Europe…

Day 1

After a drive of about 1,000 km we arrived in the evening at Kazan. Laying at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka River, Kazan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan. 

The multi-ethnic city is famous for Muslims and Christians living side-by-side in peace.

The Kazan Kremlin is a World Heritage Site listed by the UNESCO

Day 2

Driving on in direction Ural we passed through typical forrests, colourful villages and agricultural regions with former kolkhozes.

The Ural Mountains - not very high but anyway full of impressive nature.

We spent the night in a former Sovjet Sanatorium which is now a hotel but nevertheless has kept a lot of the "charm" of its former function. 

Day 3

While around Moscow it is already spring with green trees and flowers everywhere, here in the Ural there was still a lot of ice and snow around.

On the way to Karabasch. The Nature seems to be in best order...

Our target for this day was Karabasch, a mining town in the Chelyabinsk Oblast. Karabsch is concidered to be on of the most polluted regions in the world. A copper smelting plant is situated in the town, and its toxic waste has created extremly large amounts of pollution and serious health problems for the inhabitants. The averager lifespan of a male inhabitant is 42 years... 

More about Karabasch and the rest of our journey to come soon.

COLOURS: BLUE

Just playing around with colours...

INVITATION

A few days ago Scott Umstattd, the creator of Picture Power, invited me to submit an articel for the "My Most Powerful Picture" rubric of his website.

Her is the result of my attempt… 

http://www.picture-power.com/my-most-powerful-picture-chris-dematte.html

UNDERGROUND LIGHTS

Some more examples of Moscow Metro luminaries…

Russia
PREPARATIONS FOR MAY 9 - VICTORY DAY

West of Moscow one can find everywhere memorials for the "Great Patriotic War", as WW2 is called in Russia. May 9 is an important festive day with a big parade and a flyover. Already now the Russian Airforce is doing daily practice flights...

The War Memorial in Ruza, Moscow Oblast. 

Flyover.

RUST

All that shines turns to rust
All that stands in time turns to dust