On July 12 the Moscow State History Museum opened the multimedia exhibition Wonders of Russia. Over one hundred of the most impressive natural and architectural objects of this country will appear on huge screens.

Photos and videos of the amazing Russian expanses look breathtaking on gigantic screens. The exhibition concept is to take visitors on a virtual tour around the most colorful wildlife sanctuaries of this vast country.

The exposition includes images of more than one hundred objects from museum archives from all over Russia - landscapes, animals, cities, people, and famous tourist attractions shown in unusual perspectives.

"The highlight of the exposition is its multimedia part: we have selected both man-made and uncreated monuments of Russia, that is, natural wonders and architecture," - curator Oleg Marinin said.

“The exhibition aims at showing the beauty of Russia's immense lands, attracting the attention of both Russians and foreign tourists to the impressive fact that nearly all of unique natural phenomena can be found on the territory of Russia: active volcanoes, geyser fields, tramp plateaus, the deepest lakes, and the highest peaks. There is no such diversity in any other country around the world. Russia is shown at the exhibition as a separate planet, with four elements coexisting here: earth, air, water and fire. In addition, most of these places are under the protection of UNESCO; it is important for us to spark visitors’ interest in and love with these unique beauties, so that no one remains indifferent” – he added.

Of course, it was difficult to select a few out of huge variety of sights. The natural and architectural "wonders of this country" presented at the exhibition were selected based on the results of a nation-wide vote for the most beautiful places in Russia in 2008. The winners of the contest were: the weathering pillars of Man-Pupu-Ner in the Komi Republic, the Elbrus peak in Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria, Lake Baikal in Buryatia, the valley of geysers on Kamchatka Peninsula, Mamayev Kurgan and the monument "Motherland", the Peterhof palace-and-park monument in St. Petersburg and the St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.

“For the visitors of this exhibition to enjoy the beauty of the Russian land, we have expanded the list of "wonders" up to 19 sights, adding images of the Putorana Plateau mountain massif in Siberia, the Caucasian Dolmas, Baskunchak Lake, etc. It is important for us that not only Muscovites, but travelers in Moscow as well fall in love with these places”, - the exhibition organizer emphasized. One of the main objectives of the exhibition is the development of domestic tourism. There are so many sites of pristine beauty and man-made legacy of our ancestors around us, but it is still a challenge for most of us to get to remote corners of our immense homeland.

The photo and video exhibition is supplemented with paintings by nonconformist artist Mikhail Roshnyak. They are somewhat outshone by the natural beauties of Russia, however.

Director of the Moscow State History Museum, Alexei Levykin, said: “The exhibition is very peculiar. It is directly related to the main theme of the History Museum - Russia, with its heritage and beauties. In many respects the whole collection that we keep is connected with the places that are depicted in the photographs at the exhibition”.

Timed to the Year of Ecology in Russia, the exhibition Wonders of Russia will run till October 31, 2017.