Surrounded by blooming mountain valleys and azure lakes, the pride of Russia is home to snow leopards and Altai mountain sheep, rare animal species, and fabulously beautiful flowers. The Altai Republic is a treasure of the country, a fairy tale that has become a reality, a land of wonders and the wildest fantasies, where all dreams come true. The sights of Altai are surrounded by hundreds of ancient legends, which are enriched with new secrets and riddles with each generation.

One of these wonders in Altai Nature Reserve is the unique Stone Mushrooms of the Akkurum Tract. On the slope of the mountain, descending into the depths of the gorge, the harsh "father-wind" and gentle "mother-water" created beautiful giants, silent peacekeepers of the valley, that look like giant stone mushrooms. Mother Nature is multifaceted and unpredictable: without tools and hands, she could carve fantastic sculptures no worse than the talented artists who painstakingly sculpt in their workshops. There are small, barely noticeable, and grand, with huge "Spanish sombreros", representatives of the kingdom of fungi. They can shelter wandering travelers from the gusty winds and the rays of the scorching sun.

Rocky slopes are literally covered with these unique natural monuments with a diameter of up to 2 meters and a height of up to 7 meters. Some continue to grow, others begin to collapse, but all of them do not stand still, moving as if alive and going down into the gorge to the running Chulyshman River. This is not an illusion or magic, just the movement of clay soil with rubble. Therefore, every year travelers can see a new "mushroom glade" with other landscapes and characters casting their shadows on the formidable rocks and calm waters of the river. Locals sincerely believe in the ancient Altai prediction: "when the mushrooms shed their caps, the world will end".