Belomorsk
Belomorsk region has an area 12,800 km2 with 23,000 inhabitants. It lies along the White Sea
coast, at the river mouth Vig. Belomorsk's industry based on 4 hydropower plants which produce approximately
1200 million kWt per year. It is almost 30% of the total number of energy generated in Karelia.
Rock paintings which are also called petroglyfs are found here on the coast of the sea. They are world
renowned as monuments of ancient peoples' material culture. Among them there are more than 2000 pictures
of animals, birds, people, boats and other. They were made approximately 5-6 thousands years ago.
First people who lived here was Lappish people. Here still exist many geographical places with names
that have their roots in the lappish Language: Nyuhcha, Suma, Kolezhma, Virma. Around the XI century
here came Karels, and later Russians from Novgorod. A new ethnic group was formed - Pomors. They had their own
unique culture and traditions that still live here in the present.
Besides the petroglyfs Belomorsk region also has other memorials which has important significance for
the whole country: Peter and Paul Church in the village Virma (year 1696), St.Nikolaus Church (year 1602)
and a chapel (1672) on the island Troitski, Lake Muezero.
A monument to modern times that arouses great interest among foreign tourists are the plants of Belomorkanal -
a canal that is connecting the White Sea with the Baltic Sea. It was built in the 1920s of political
prisoners and was the beginning of the Gulag system in the Soviet Union.
Belomorsk region has good transport facilities - a railway, a motorway that has a status of national road and
also Belomorkanal - a waterway which is still used. Ships from the Barents sea can arrive to the port of Belomorsk.