The Vasiukova Mohyla Mound. The Highest Point of Dnipropetrovsk Region

Do you think the highest point of Dnipropetrovsk region is somewhere on the Dnipro cliffs? No, you guessed wrong. The location of the highest point of the Dnipropetrovshchyna has been determined in the steppe zone, to the southeast of the regional centre. It is separated from the Dnipro by 100 kilometres, and from the village of Prosiana in Pokrovsk district — by 2 kilometres.

The terrain of Dnipropetrovsk region is an undulating plain crossed by ravines, river valleys, and gullies. Scattered among the fields are around 7 thousand archaeological monuments, a large part of which are burial mounds. The Vasiukova Mohyla mound, 36-38 metres in diameter, with an absolute height of 211.4 metres and its own height of about 5 metres, is the highest point of the region.

 

The earthen burial mound is covered with thick weeds and surrounded by the stubble of mown sunflower, which exhausts Ukraine's black soils.

 

Once, a geodesic marker stood on the height. A pit in the centre of the hill and pieces of concrete bear witness that the bearer of the coordinates was destroyed at the root. There are no plaques or other identifying marks on the hill.

 

Eighty metres from the height there is a barely noticeable little hummock — a ploughed-up mound. Thousands of Scythian burial grounds on the collective-farm fields have been turned into arable land and remain unstudied. Five hundred metres from the geodesic monument lies an abandoned kaolin quarry, which supplied natural raw materials to enterprises producing porcelain, paper, ceramics, and roofing materials.

 

Coordinates of the highest point of Dnipropetrovsk region: 48°5’55"N 36°19’48"E