The Uitag Natural Monument is a protected area that is only a square mile in size. The nearest settlements are the Khakassian villages of Katanov, Kamyshta and Ust-Kamyshta.
The region around Uitag is very picturesque, with mountains that separate the flatlands of the Uibat and Sagai Steppes. What is very unique about this place is that you can find pre-historic fossilized plants here—including lepidodendrons, that grew in this area some 400 million years ago, and which now are visible along the surface of the mountain ridges. The natural monument here is also famous for its rare living plant species, several of which are listed as endangered in the Red Book for Khakassia. Some of them have odd-sounding names, which could be translated into English as: rocky bells, fleecy feathergrass, Ionian astragalus, shaggy boatmen, etc. There are also many rare Russian animals here, such as the Red-footed falcon, the steppe kestrel, the osprey, and Ruddy Shelduck.
You can also find no end of artifacts in this region, some dating as far back as 1300-700 BC (when the local Karakusk culture was predominant), followed by remnants from the Tagar (700-300 BC) and Tashtyk (100-500 AD) cultures. More recent tribes—such as the Yenisei Kyrgyz—also were dominant here on the steppe-lands during the time between 600-1300 AD.