1. Perm is both a city and a geological period. Just near Perm geological layers of the era, which was then named after the place of discovery of the Permian period, were found.
This period ended with massive extinction of Permian types, when from 70% to 96% of animal species, including insects, have died – the only known such case.
2. Perm is the name of the peoples inhabiting these places. Written records of the Perm peoples date back to the beginning of the 12thcentury.
3. Residents of Perm used to be called “Permyak – salty ears”. The story behind this name is rather unusual. Earlier in the Perm region there was salt production. When men were loading bags of salt, some of it spilled on their ears. The ears began “burning” from the salt, turned red and increased in size. Hence the expression “Permyak – salty ears”. You could easily distinguish a resident of Perm by looking at his ears if he travelled to other parts of Russia. In Perm, there is even a sculptural composition “Permyak – salty ears”, and in the center of one of the parts of the composition there is a hole for a face, where you put your head in and get photographed with giant bronze ears. This is one of the strangest monuments in Russia.
4. Perm is the only million-citizen city in Russia, which got this status, then lost it, and then regained again.
5. Next to Perm in the open air there is a museum of traditional and iconic Russian wooden architecture called Hohlovka. The oldest wooden buildings in the museum date back to the end of the 17th century. In many old buildings the interiors of the time were recreated. Among the wooden buildings transferred to the territory of the museum there is a building of the old manor, a watchtower, a church (1694), a bell tower, a village fire station, hunting buildings and a windmill. There are also buildings of the salt development: a hoist tower, a salt stall, salt barns, etc.
Wooden church of the Transfiguration (1707), the architectural museum Hohlovka, Perm
6. You can also take a trip into the past in the Museum of Perm Antiquities. Besides the object of the Permian period, the museum exhibits many of the animals that used to inhabit the planet, such as the Jurassic dinosaurs, mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses of the Quaternary period. Some of them have been recreated in the form of assembled skeletons, others –as life-sized figures. There is also a “paleontological room of discoveries” where you can feel like a researcher of the ancient world.
7. Perm Museums contain many excellent collections, such as, for example, the archaeological collection of Perm that includes more than 250,000 objects. Perm museums have remarkable collection of natural history, ethnography, numismatics, science and technology, art, rare books, stunning wooden sculptures and so on. In the museum House of Menshikov, you can see a unique pastoral staff of Stephan of Perm (1345 – 1396) which was used to baptize the Perm Region.
8. Perm is the most notable place in Russia, where most UFO sightings were recorded. A real mecca for ufologists from around the world is Molebka village. Many travel agencies of Perm organize inexpensive trips to this place, including an overnight stay in the open air (in a tent). Do you want to see aliens?
9. Grateful Venice. 400 thousand wooden piles on which Venice stands were made of larch from Perm. It seems that the wood instead of rotting as if turned to stone in seawater. Perm larch was delivered to Venice through Astrakhan and the Black Sea. Sometimes larch was transported through Arkhangelsk. The wood was called differently: “Permski”, “kargalski”, “Russian”, “Arkhangelski”, and even “Siberian” and “Ural”.
10. “The Great Tea Road” – this was the name of the route used to transport tea in caravans from China to the European part of Russia. The greatest development of the Great Tea Road took place in 17th-19th centuries. It went across the territory of three current countries: Russia, Mongolia and China. The most famous place on the Tea Road in the Perm region is the city of Kungur.
11. Recently, a married couple in Perm, despite all protests, called their newborn baby … Lucifer.
12. On the territory of the Perm region you can find such unique natural places as the mountain plateau Karkush, the Orda cave on which we already have an article, as well as accessible to ordinary tourists the ice Kungur cave (the best time to visit in terms of the size of ice build-up – February-March ).
Tundra on Karkush Plateau, Perm region, Russia
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фото-фотобанк Лори