Ending (published in #104 and # 110).
(https://rosphoto.com/best-of-the-best/puteshestviya_po_rossii-2668)
CURONIAN SPIT, KALININGRAD REGION
The Curonian Spit is a sandy spit located on the coast of the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon. It is a narrow and long strip of saber-shaped land that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea and stretches from the city of Zelenogradsk, Kaliningrad Region, to the city of Klaipeda (Smiltyne) (Lithuania). The name of the spit comes from the name of the ancient tribes of the Curonians who lived here before the colonization of Prussia by the Germans.
The length is 98 kilometers, the width ranges from 400 meters (in the area of the village of Lesnoy) to 3.8 kilometers (in the area of Cape Bulvikyo, just north of Nida).
The Curonian Spit is a unique natural and anthropogenic landscape and a territory of exceptional aesthetic value: The Curonian Spit is the largest sandy body, which, along with the Hel and Vistula Spit, is part of the Baltic sandy spit complex, which has no analogues in the world. The high level of biological diversity due to the combination of various landscapes – from desert (dunes) to tundra (raised bog) – gives an idea of important and long-term ecological and biological processes in evolution.
The most significant element of the spit relief is a continuous strip of sandy white dunes 0.3 – 1 km wide, some of them approaching the highest in the world (up to 68 m). Due to its geographical position and orientation from northeast to southwest, it serves as a corridor for migratory birds of many species flying from the northwestern regions of Russia, Finland and the Baltic countries to the countries of Central and Southern Europe. Annually, in spring and autumn, from 10 to 20 million birds fly over the spit, a significant part of which stop here for rest and feeding.
Favorable climatic conditions make it possible to rest on the Curonian Spit from May to November. In 2000, the Curonian Spit was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.