Antarctic expedition exhibition opens at Kazan international airport ahead of FINA world championships

Participant of the Antarctica 100 expedition and photo writer Anton Raykhshtat has opened an exhibiton in the Kazan International Airport. The Antarctica 100 photo project tells about achievements of Tatarstan researchers, who in December 2014 were first on the planet to dive to the depth of 97m near the shores of the Ice Continent. Down under the sea, they made scientific research and tested Russian equipment for deep water dives in extreme conditions.

The water temperature at the moment of diving was -2. The total dive time was 71 minutes. The Antarctica 100 project, which unites people of different outlooks, nationalities and religious views in one team, reflects such values of Kazan and Tatarstan people as multireligious and multicultural harmony, peaceful coexistence and result orientation. It is dedicated to the 220th birthday of the only researcher of the First Russian Antarctic Expedition of 1819-1821, the rector of the Kazan University, Ivan Simonov. The expedition is meant to acknowledge achievements of the Russian discoverers of the Ice Continent, Faddey Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev.

The expedition also had a spiritual mission. After diving into the water, the scuba divers headed to the Bellingshausen Station (Russian polar station) where they presented polar explorers with gifts and sacred things of three religions brought from Kazan – the Koran from the Kul Sharif Mosque, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God from the Annunciation Cathedral in the Kazan Kremlin and the Torah from the Kazan synagogue. It was for the first time ever that the Koran was brought to the Antarctica and namaz was prayed. All in all, 36 photos from 4 continents – Europe, Asia, Latin America and Antarctica – were displayed during the Antarctica 100 exhibition.

By the way, on July 1, 2015, the leader of this exhibition, Dmitry Shiller, was chosen to be the Ambassador for the 16th FINA World Championships. Right now his underwater research group is on a new expedition to the North of the Arctic Circle, at the Barents Sea, which became the  starting point for the large-scale 13 Seas of Russia project. During the expedition, the divers will take the capsule with water from the Kazanka River, one of the symbols of the forthcoming Championships, to the bottom of the Barents Sea.