Why is the Apple Ridge so named, because there are no more apples here than in other places

On maps, sometimes you can find geographical names that are completely untrue and are perplexing. For example, Greenland, covered with eternal ice, resembles little green earth, and in Argentina, whose name can be translated as "silver", no grandiose reserves of silver were found. There are similar names in our country. In Transbaikalia, an extensive Apple Ridge stretches. When you look at a map, the imagination draws slopes overgrown with apple trees, whose branches bend under the weight of the fruit. In fact, the apple trees here are the same as in other taiga places: their apples are small and sour in taste, and most of the fruit is occupied by seeds. But why, then, is the ridge called Yablonov?

This name appeared on geographical maps after the appearance of Russian pioneers in these places in the 17th century. A ridge with a length of about 650 kilometers extends from the southwest to the northeast. This mountain range is a watershed between the basins of the Pacific and Arctic Oceans, but its average height is not so great and ranges from 1000-1500 meters.

It is noteworthy that several wide valleys cut it, so the Buryats, the indigenous inhabitants of these places, call this ridge Jablan dabaan, which can be translated as a “convenient pass” or “passable pass”. The pioneers distorted the name a little for ease of pronunciation, but as a result of such a transformation, the meaning of the name completely changed - from a ridge with convenient passes, it turned into a ridge with apple trees.