Besov Nos is a cape on the eastern coast of Lake Onega, 1.5 km north of the confluence of the Chernaya River into Lake Onega.
General information
The cape is famous for its petroglyphs, among which stands out an anthropomorphic image called a “demon”, about 2.30 m long, which is about 5 thousand years old. The name “demon” was given to the image by pioneering Christian monks in the 16th century. Petroglyphs are classified as archaeological Neolithic monuments. The collection of petroglyphs at Cape Besov Nos is considered the richest in Fennoscandia (Scandinavia and Finland).
About 200 meters from the cape to the west in the lake there is a small rocky island called “Besikha”.
There is a non-working lighthouse on the cape. 1 km east of the cape, on the continent, there are the remains of the abandoned village of Besonosovka. The village ceased to exist in the late 1960s and early 1970s. 15 km to the east on the continent is the village of Karshevo. Besov Nos is connected to Karshevo by a dirt forest road.
Approximately 1 km north of Besov Nos is Cape Peri-Nos. At the same distance to the south is Cape Kladovets.
Cape Besov Nos and adjacent capes are a common place for local fishermen and hunters to visit - from the village of Shalsky - 20 km to the north along the coast of Lake Onega and from Karshev.
For decades, Besov Nos has been the target of constant expeditions of archaeological units of the Karelian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as archaeological scientists from Scandinavia and other European countries.
The cape was also an important geodetic point and landmark for water tourists and yachtsmen, including participants in the Onega Regatta. In recent years, Besov Nos has also begun to be intensively visited by autotourists.
The territory of Cape Besov Nos is a natural and historical reserve.
How to get to Cape Besov Nos
There are five available methods:
- Along the Chernaya River, from the village of Karshevo by boat.
- The road from the village of Karshevo is about 15 km on foot or by all-terrain vehicle.
- Along Lake Onega by boat along the shore from the village of Shalsky.
- Along the shore of Lake Onega from the village of Shalsky it is about 15 km on foot or by all-terrain vehicle.
5. By all-terrain vehicle to the coast along the Tsarskaya Road near the village of Vytegra, and from there by boat to the cape.
In the middle of the 19th century, geologist Konstantin Grevingk, a professor at the University of Tartu, discovered many drawings carved into stones on the rocks on the eastern shore of Lake Onega. Since that time, people have become aware of the existence of the Onega petroglyphs - one of the main attractions of Karelia.
Rock paintings in Karelia can be found in several places, but the most famous are the White Sea and Onega petroglyphs. The first are located near Belomorsk near the sea coast, the others are on the eastern side of Lake Onega in the Pudozh region of Karelia. The Onega petroglyphs were carved approximately 5-6 thousand years ago, when the territory of modern Karelia was just being inhabited by primitive tribes. These petroglyphs are so unique that, along with the famous Kizhi, they are included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Unknown artists used stone chisels to carve images on coastal rocks for many years and even centuries. It is difficult and to modern man, not to mention our Stone Age ancestors. Scientists have established that the authors of the petroglyphs used a piece of quartz as a chisel, using a second piece of stone as a hammer. Today, more than a thousand images are known, ranging in size from a few centimeters to four meters. They are concentrated on a rocky section of the coast 20 km long.
Almost half of all known images were carved on the capes Besov Nos and Peri Nos. These places are remote from public roads and popular tourist routes, therefore, not all tourists who come to Karelia on vacation can look at the petroglyphs.
Primitive artists on the shores of Lake Onega most often depicted birds and, slightly less often, animals. There are also images of people or supernatural creatures. Some of the Onega petroglyphs have not yet been deciphered and scientists can only assume what ancient people painted on the stones.
The most famous Onega petroglyph is the image of the “Demon” on the Demon’s Nose. A huge (more than 2 meters in height) disproportionate figure of a humanoid creature is carved into the rock, and there is a deep crack in the middle of the image. Next to the “Demon” there are images of a catfish or burbot and a lizard or otter. For several thousand years this petroglyph remained unchanged, and only in the 19th century the monks of a local monastery decided to “neutralize” it and carved an image of an Orthodox cross over its left hand. This is the form in which this petroglyph now appears before researchers and tourists coming to Karelia.
Why ancient people carved these images on stone, scientists can only speculate. Perhaps they were used in rituals. Some even believe that sacrifices could have been carried out on the Demon Nose. Other researchers consider our ancestors to be less bloodthirsty, and petroglyphs, according to their version, could serve as a kind of observatory with the help of which the movement of celestial bodies was calculated. By the way, it’s worth admiring the petroglyphs just before the stars appear. The images are best seen in the last rays of the setting sun. In this light, the relief of the rock appears along with the slightest cracks.
How to get to the Onega petroglyphs:
Petroglyphs on Lake Onega, unlike those on the White Sea, are located away from popular tourist routes. Therefore, few tourists can look at the unique stone writings with their own eyes. You can get to Cape Besov Nos both by water and by land. In the first case, the most in a simple way There will be a boat rental in the village of Shalsky. The village is located just a little over 10 kilometers from Besov Nos.
In order to get to the petroglyphs by land, you will need a prepared SUV. First you need to get to Pudozh - this is the regional center, then tourists have a 35-kilometer stretch, first to the village of Karashevo, and then along a forest dirt road to the cape. The journey will be quite exciting, because along the way there are abandoned villages, and the road itself can add adrenaline to the blood, so you need to go in a prepared jeep with a winch, several jacks and, preferably, experience in trophy raids. In general, there are many similar impassable roads in this region and jeep tours in Karelia are very popular. Such a vacation will allow you to get to know Karelia from a completely different side and look at such hidden places that the locals themselves sometimes do not know about.
If the path to the Onega petroglyphs seems too long, you can simply visit National Museum, located in the very center of Petrozavodsk. Its collections contain a piece of rock with real petroglyphs brought from the eastern shore of Lake Onega.
What to see nearby
Onega petroglyphs are located in the Pudozh region of Karelia. For a long time it was considered a remote territory, located on the edge of the republic, and even reaching ships was quite difficult. Nowadays a federal highway passes through the territory of the district, connecting Karelia, Arkhangelsk and Vologda regions. Every year it will get better, so the flow of tourists here will only increase in the coming years.
This region is special. Traditionally, people settled here mainly Russian population, whose life acquired its own special features. They can tell about all this at the local history museum of the region in Pudozh. Thanks to its position, the area has managed to preserve its unique nature, untouched by civilization. Here is the largest park in Europe wildlife"Vedlozersky", and pilgrims will be interested in visiting the Murom Monastery, founded in the 14th century.
Cape Besov Nos is not only a picturesque place on Lake Onega with ancient petroglyphs, but also a truly iconic place in the off-road environment.
It was from numerous reports from jeepers that I learned about the existence of the cape. But every year the road to Demon Nose became more difficult.
The bridge in Karshevo is no longer suitable for travel, the famous sandy slope on the lake shore has been washed away, and it has become even more extreme. We immediately rejected the idea of driving here with one car, but we still wanted to get here.
And finally, we planned the route and reached the treasured cape.
Below the cut I’ll tell you in detail how to get to the cape if your car is not equipped with mud tires and a winch, I’ll show you the petroglyphs and the beauty of the local nature, and I’ll also tell you about the kind of devilry going on here. No joke here, there was a great chance to go to the other world, but in the end the Bes took the money.
When we decided to hire a boat to go to the desired Onega shore along the river, I was a little complex about this. Still, this location should be taken in an SUV, and we even have one. But I soberly assessed our capabilities, and the road there is not easy and impassable without a winch.
But all complexes and sadness disappeared as soon as we loaded into the boat and sailed away. 
I just didn't expect the Black River to be so beautiful.
Road from national park Paanajärvi to the village of Karshevo took longer than we planned. And this worked to our advantage, because... We traveled the entire route along the Chernaya River in the evening at sunset.
Let me tell you a little about the drop itself.
The most convenient and shortest way to get to Besovo Nos is to go by boat from the village of Karshevo. It turns out to be about 20 km by water.
Vasily Meshchaninov drove us. This man, as it turned out, is widely known in narrow circles. At the same time, finding his phone number was not so easy, but not for my readers and friends. Here it is +79214627952. It is not a monopolist in this service sector - other options can be found. 
In June 2018, an excursion cost 3,000 rubles, and one pick-up/drop-off flight cost 2,000 rubles. Those. the round trip cost on different days was 4,000 rubles. We chose the latter option and spent 2 nights at Onego.
The boat trip left pleasant memories, and besides, we almost never travel by boat. From that moment on, I think more and more often about a boat or kayak.
Meanwhile we reached the lake. All that remained was to go around Cape Kladovets, and we were there.
We landed in the bay between Cape Besov Nos and Cape Kladovets Nos.
When we were still going around Kladovets, we immediately noticed a nice place on the very tip of the cape. We said goodbye to Vasily, having previously agreed on the time of the return flight, put on our backpacks and went to look for a place to camp.
The place turned out to be quite cozy, and most importantly, it was not busy and not near the main path.
We pitched our tent and enjoyed the magnificent sunset. 
In the morning we planned a walk to Demon Nose and Peri Nose.
Here's a view of our camp from the bay. If you look really closely, you can find our tent... But overall, we managed to get up quite unnoticed, as it seemed to us.
It wasn’t far from our parking lot to the lighthouse, about 2 kilometers.
The trail is generally comfortable and runs along the shore of the lake, but in one place we had to go a little deeper into the forest.
There is plenty of stone here.
And not only lying on the surface, but also creating this surface.
Now the lighthouse is already visible.
I was surprised to find that the first tier had been thoroughly torn apart for firewood. I just can’t wrap my head around how this is possible. Petroglyphs are petroglyphs, but the lighthouse is an integral part of the Besovo Nos landscape.
Through the gaps in the lighthouse's cladding you can look at its structural system.
After examining the lighthouse, we went to look for petroglyphs.
As it turned out, the petroglyphs themselves are not so easy to photograph so that something is visible.
Smart people then suggested that this should be done at sunset.
The same Demon who gave the name to the cape is depicted here. The length of Bes is about 2.30 m, and his age is about 5 thousand years. It's a pity that you can't see almost anything in the photo.
I can’t say that overall the petroglyphs delighted our family, but it’s still interesting. There was even a thought to return at sunset, but this was not destined to happen and for a completely different reason.
I will not hide that we liked the area itself more than the famous petroglyphs.
Rugged stone shores extending into the water, capes and bays, a pine forest, a LIGHTHOUSE - this is a real delight. But there is no arguing about tastes and to each his own!
I have been interested in lighthouses since childhood and I am very glad that I was able to see a little with my own eyes.
And we decided to continue our walk towards the next cape called Peri Nos.
I wonder what this cross means? I dare to suggest that he was washed ashore by the waters of Onego, and someone decided to hook him on a pine branch. Do you have any ideas about this?
From this bay there is a good view of the Demon's Nose and the lighthouse.
While I was filming the lighthouse, Daria was clearly not bored.
As we approached Cape Peri Nos, we came across a company of men.
They were returning just from the petroglyphs of this cape, one of them was damp through and through. We chatted with them a little and listened to their story: one of them, while photographing petroglyphs, came too close to the edge and ended up falling into the lake along with the camera. The guys warned us about this danger, and we moved on.
Wandering around the cape, we did not find any petroglyphs, which was surprising and annoyed. We decided to take a walk towards the pretty islands, and on the way back, come back and look again.
View of Cape Peri Nos.
The story of swimming in the lake seemed kind of stupid to us and we didn’t learn any lessons from it. But it was necessary!
If you look a little closer, in the photo below you can see a damp spot on the stone in the lower center.
It would be like this: I saw a beautiful island and decided to photograph it. It didn’t fit properly into the 24-70/2.8, so I decided to wear the wide-angle Samyang 14/2.8. I sat down on the shore, put my backpack next to me and began changing lenses. And everything would be fine, but the open backpack suddenly decided to start moving along the slope of the shore. I reflexively pulled it by the strap so that it would not fall into the lake and at that moment I let go of the 24-70/2.8... The lens immediately ended up in the water, I also caught the water with my backpack, but its contents remained in place. Samyang eventually held the camera. My beloved Tamron was lying on the bottom and blowing air bubbles...
On the one hand, what happened no longer required urgent action. The lens was in water, and there was definitely water in it, as the bubbles indicated. But I decided that I needed to get it urgently - I took off my sneakers, rolled up my pants to the knee and went after it. It was the worst thing you could do...
Firstly, the depth of this place was deceptive, and it turned out to be significantly above the knee. Secondly, there was slippery algae on the rocks underwater. I took one step and immediately slipped on the seaweed and followed the path of the lens, hitting the underwater rocks. Of course, I took out the lens. But he forgot to take his phone out of his pocket before starting the rescue operation. Having realized, he gave it to his wife, and he began to try to get out of the lake. And it was not easy, because... The bank is sloped and slippery. Daria tried to pull me by the hand, but she didn’t have enough strength. In the end, we somehow managed to get out, but it wasn’t that easy.
On this page:
Cape Besov Nose of Lake Onega is widely known in narrow circles as a place that every self-respecting jeeper should visit. Every summer, dozens of real men storm the Onega forests and swamps in one impulse. In other circles, Besov Nos is famous mainly for its Neolithic petroglyphs, which we went (or rather, swam) to see.
The trip to Besov Nos has become the talk of the town among fans of off-road shit climbing. The very first pictures for the query “demon nose on a jeep” on Google are beautiful:
No, it's not broken, it's the suspension it has.
Well, etc. and so on. No, this is not our car =))
This fascinating pastime is best characterized by a dialogue read in some report:
- Why do you need so much gasoline?
- Yes, our motorboat overturned and everything leaked out.
- How did you turn over?
— Yes, I collided with a UAZ and overturned.
We have no more questions.
Particularly gifted people travel right along the banks of the Onega to the Murom Monastery - this is new chic. It's even more interesting:
Although we quite by chance happened to have a jeep with us that was just right for all the jeeps, it was not at all prepared for such swims. So, like the last suckers, we had to sail on that same motorboat. In principle, you can get to Besov Nos on foot; along the jeep road it’s only 15 km to the place.
How to get to Besov Nos
All roads to Besov Nos begin in the village of Karshevo, which is about 40 kilometers south of Pudozh. Half of the population of this village makes a living by transporting everyone to Besovo Nos on motorboats.
It costs on average 1000 rubles. per person.
The journey along the river is quite far, about half an hour one way.
Finally, the river flows into Onega, and we shake ourselves out of the boat.
From the mouth of the river to Cape Besov Nos itself, you still need to walk about three kilometers along sandy beaches Onegi.
On the high capes, the entire pine forest was destroyed by the 2010 hurricane. It left behind areas of literally mown forest throughout the North.
Demon Nose
Here, finally, is the Demon Nose.
It represents granite “foreheads” gently descending into Onega. It is on this granite that you need to look for petroglyphs.
The most famous of the local petroglyphs is the so-called “demon”: its legs are clearly visible in the photo below.
And the rest is difficult to see, because the weather was cloudy and unsuitable for viewing the petroglyphs.
It’s best to go to Besov Nos in sunny weather: in the light scattered by clouds, the petroglyphs are very poorly visible. And a local guide wouldn’t hurt either: some of the drawings are difficult to find without outside help.
This is what the Demon looks like if you draw its outlines with chalk.
It can be seen that the figure was carved on top of a large crack that split the granite boulder. Perhaps the ancient aborigines considered this crack to be something like an entrance to other worlds.
In general, despite the fact that Besov Nos is the largest “deposit” of petroglyphs in all of Fennoscandia (Scandinavia, Finland and Karelia), the Onega petroglyphs are very poorly studied, almost not deciphered at all, and it is not really known who and why carved all this into stone in the era Neolithic
To the right, an Orthodox cross is knocked out on top of the Bes. This is the work of the monks of the nearby Murom Monastery, who actually discovered the Onega petroglyphs a couple of hundred years ago.
Well, around Bes there are many other drawings of animals, fish and strange figures.
Previously, there was a lighthouse on the cape, but now in the era of GPS, no one needs it and is abandoned.
And all around there are untouched pine forests. The places are simply magical and of course you should go here for a week or two with a tent, and not for a couple of hours.
Peri Nose
There are petroglyphs not only on Cape Besov Nos itself, but also on neighboring ones. The closest of them is Cape Peri Nos, a kilometer away. We go there along the shore.
Along the way we refresh ourselves with pasture. What I like in the north is that all the “gifts of nature” grow there at once: in the forest there are raspberries, blueberries, lingonberries, blueberries, cloudberries, and mushrooms at the same time. Cranberry, though, later.
Peri Nos is several stone promontories protruding into the lake, which also have petroglyphs.
Here the plots and style are different and nothing is clear at all. Who is this? Some birds.
There are a lot of simple icons and geometric shapes.
Our boatman gave us 3 hours to do everything, and this turned out to be not enough. We haven’t seen everything yet, but we already have to go back.
Demon Nose (Republic of Karelia, Russia) - detailed description, location, reviews, photos and videos.
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The Demon's Nose is the figurative name of the cape on the shore of Lake Onega in Karelia; in its shape it truly resembles a hooked nose. Despite its inaccessibility, the cape is very popular among tourists due to the Neolithic rock paintings located on it. One of the most striking petroglyphs is a 2.5-meter image of a humanoid creature, which received the name “Demon” back in the 16th century. The collection of rock art of the cape is the largest on the entire coast of the territory uniting Scandinavia and Finland (the so-called Fennoscandia). Unfortunately, visitors often cause irreparable harm to the unique collection by lighting fires on the stoves or carving their names on them.
What to see
The picturesque cape with rocky shores and northern forest reaches 750 m in length and about 200 in width. Approximately 3000 BC. e. for the ancient people who lived in the surrounding area, this place was something like a sanctuary. In addition to the demon, the main petroglyphs are images of an otter and burbot, carved at the very edge of the water. They form a “triad” that has mystical meaning. According to legend, in the 15th century, the monks of the nearby Murom Monastery painted a Christian cross on top of the drawings to “neutralize evil spirits.”
Rock carvings are visible on slabs in the center of the cape. Some of them are so close to the water that you might not even be able to see them. Therefore, it is better to visit the Demon's Nose in sunny and calm weather.
On the cape there is a wooden abandoned lighthouse 16 meters high. There are other attractions in the vicinity - Besikha Island, 200 m west of the cape, and the ghost village of Besonosovka, uninhabited since the 1970s, a kilometer to the east.
Practical information
Address: Rep. Karelia, 186161, Pudozhsky district, Besov Nos. Coordinates: 61.665936, 36.054273.
Nearest locality- With. Karshevo, 15 km from the cape. A dirt road leads from it. True, on the way you will come across a flimsy bridge that can hardly support the car. It is safer to get from the village on foot, by bicycle or by water - local residents transport tourists along the river. Black on motor boat. Another road to the cape, more convenient for off-road vehicles, but also longer, goes through the village. Shalsky.
