Scientists from 40 countries are going to sign an open letter to the RF President Vladimir Putin and the Chelyabinsk Region Governor Boris Dubrovsky.

      Leading geologists, archeologists, and paleontologists intend to draw the authorities’ attention to the unique nature monument, the karstic Ignatyev Cave located on the bank of River Sim in Katav-Ivanovo District.

      Rock paintings of the Paleolithic Age and artifacts of the Bronze Age still found in the upper galleries of the two-level cave are of particular interest for historians and archeologists. The finds are evidences that people found shelter  in the Ignatyev Cave from the late Middle Ages.

      Unfortunately, numerous tourists and pilgrims, the latter flocking to see an acheiropaeic image of the Mother of God also found in the cave, are a serious threat to the closed ecosystem. Its walls are covered with tourists’ inscriptions and graffiti. Besides, daily waste gets accumulated in the historical cave monument.