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Kigilyakh or kisiliyakh[1] (Russian: кигиляхи; Yakut: киһилээх, meaning "stone person") are pillar-like natural rock formations looking like tall monoliths standing more or less isolated. Usually they are composed of granite or sandstone shaped as a result of cryogenic weathering.[2] Most kigilyakhs formed during the Cretaceous period and are about 120 million years old.[3]
These anthropomorphic rock pillars are an important feature in Yakut culture.[4][5] Often they are slightly scattered, protruding from the surface of smooth mountains and giving the impression of a standing crowd of people.[6] According to Yakut legends kigilyakhs originated in very ancient people.[5]
The Yakut word "kisiliy" means "a place where there are people".[3] Kisilyakh means "mountain having a man" or "mountain married".[6] The term "kigilyakh" is a distorted form of the original Yakut "kisilyakh".[7]
Such stones are found in different places of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia, mainly in the East Siberian Lowland:[5]
Outside of Yakutia, similar formations are found in the island of Popova-Chukchina and the Putorana Plateau, in Krasnoyarsk Krai.[11]
Ferdinand Wrangel reported on the kigilyakhs on Chetyryokhstolbovoy, an island of the Medvezhyi Islands in the East Siberian Sea. He visited the island during his 1821-1823 expedition and named it after them (Chetyryokhstolbovoy meaning "four pillars"). The kigilyakhs on Chetyryokhstolbovoy Island are about 15 m (49 ft) high.[2]
In Soviet times on the Kigilyakh Peninsula at the western end of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, one of the New Siberian Islands, Vladimir Voronin, then in charge of the Polar station on the island, was shown a large standing rock which had been heavily eroded and which gave its name to the peninsula.[12]
