SAINT PETERSBURG, April 22 At the headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg, journalists were shown one of the largest Russian maps in history , the correspondent reports.
Inverted map
The large drawing of Siberia was created by engineer, geographer, icon painter Semyon Remezov between 1696 and 1698. The canvas is called the “cartographic Mona Lisa”. Its size is the size of the wall of an apartment in a panel Khrushchev building.
In addition, the map looks unusual: north is at the bottom, south is at the top. The exhibit also does not have the usual scale and coordinate grid. Distances are calculated in day's marches, and landmarks are, for example, the places where «Alexander the Great buried his gun.» photo» data-crop-ratio=»0.75″ data-crop-width=»600″ data-crop-height=»450″ data-source-sid=»not_rian_photo» title=»In the library of the Headquarters of the Russian Geographical Society in St. Petersburg» class=»lazyload» width=»1920″ height=»1440″ decoding=»async» />
The exhibit shows how the Russian state developed, Siberia was developed, what the worldview of the explorers was, noted the Russian Geographical Society.
«The map was created for the Siberian order, then came into the possession of Peter the Great — it hung in his residence, nailed to the wall with furniture nails. On it he conducted exams for those who were not very knowledgeable in geography,” said the chairman of the restoration commission, Ilya Gurov. “Then the exhibit was exhibited in the Hermitage, but still turned out to be little studied.”
Other maps and atlases of Remezov are well studied, but almost nothing is known about this one.
“It resembles an icon, the images of Saints Zosima and Savvaty from the Solovetsky Monastery. When we carried out instrumental research, it turned out that the map was created using icon-painting technologies,” Gurov explained.
In particular, those places that seem dark, actually covered with two layers of precious metals: silver on the bottom, gold leaf on top. Areas of the map that appear green were actually blue. “The colors are applied with natural mineral paints, and over 325 years they have changed their structure.”
Now the map needs restoration. On instructions from the President of the Russian Geographical Society Sergei Shoigu, a team of specialists began work that will last in 2024 and 2025.
The restorers are supported by the FESCO transport group.
Secrets of drawings and diaries
Participants of the RGS Media Club attended an excursion that has no analogues in any museum in Russia.
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Journalists were allowed to restore manuscripts that were in danger of being destroyed by fungus and mold.
They were introduced to the work of special scanners on which valuable documents are digitized, they were shown volumes from the grand ducal libraries and the platform from which Fridtjof Nansen reported on the discoveries, Thor Heyerdahl and Yuri Senkevich.
Unusual travels
This year the Russian Geographical Society is preparing several expeditions at once. 
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So, experts plan to search for and examine ships and submarines that sank in the La Perouse Strait during the Second World War, as well as to lift a Soviet military aircraft from the bottom of a lake in Kamchatka.
Journalists will be able to visit the excavations of the Tunnug mound in the Republic of Tyva, observe research work on Franz Josef Land and in Baltiysk.
Work to clean up the Arctic from man-made pollution will continue.