The Sayano-Shushenskaya HES has the largest installed capacity in Russia. It is 500 kilometers to the south from Krasnoyarsk on the bank of the river Yenisei.
The height of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric dam is 242 meters. It is the highest hydroelectric dam in Russia. In the other countries highland hydroelectric stations may have even higher dams but, as a rule, their capacity is around 3 GW, while the capacity of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HES reaches 6,4 GW.
The construction of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HES began in 1963. By that time the Krasnoyarsk HES had already been under construction for 6 years, since 1956. The construction of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HES was generally finished at the beginning of the 70th, even though officially it was finished only in 2000.
You should combine a visit to the Sayano-Shushenskaya HES with a tour of the Shushenskoye museum reserve and a trip to the Shushenskiy Bor. The village Shushenskoye where Lenin lived at the end of 19 century is 80 kilometers to the north from the hydroelectric station.
A path running through the highland part of the Shushenskiy Bor is called Ekoborus. Its name is related with the Borus, a two-headed mountain of the Western Sayan. The tourist route begins at the kordon «Talovskiy Log» and runs through the valley along the mountain stream Talovka. On the way you can see the Sayano-Shushenskaya HES from above.
