Sanctuary

an area on land or in a body of water within which only individual elements of a natural complex are specially protected, rather than the entire complex as in a pre-serve: vegetation, all or certain species of animals, or other elements.

In the USSR, sanctuaries forbidding hunting, established for the conservation of valuable species of wild animals and birds, are most common; hunting is prohibited there for up to ten years or more. There are also fishery sanctuaries (to protect spawning grounds, adults and juveniles of valuable species); landscape sanctuaries (picturesque river valleys, lakes and the surrounding area, and sites that have aesthetic or cultural value or are used for recreation and tourism); forest, steppe, and bog sanctuaries (set aside for scientific purposes and to solve certain economic problems, as well as to conserve communities of rare plants); geological sanctuaries (unique caves, geological outcrops, deposits of residues of fossil flora and fauna); hydrological sanctuaries (lakes with unusual hydrological regimes); and other natural sanctuaries, as well as those intended to protect historical areas.

Natural sanctuaries are created by decrees of the Council of Ministers of the Union Republics and by the decisions of local councils. The operating conditions are established by the governments of the Union republics, conservation agencies, and executive committees of local councils. Special legal acts concerning sanctuaries have been drawn up by the Union republics. Economic activity incompatible with the main purpose of a sanctuary is usually banned. Hunting, fishing, felling trees, grazing cattle, cutting hay, or quarrying may be banned, depending on the purpose of the sanctuary.

a place for the performance of religious rites; it is usually considered the abode of a deity. The oldest sanctuaries were evidently secret recesses in the depths of caves, where numerous depictions of animals and traces of magic rituals have been found dating from the Paleolithic, particularly in southern France, northern Spain, and in the USSR in the Kapova Cave. Similar sanctuaries are still found today among certain backward peoples; for example, the Australian aborigines have secret hiding places for their totemic emblems.

Sanctuaries consisting of special buildings or fenced-in plots of land with various structures are known among almost all ancient peoples. In some areas they developed from men’s houses (Melanesia), and in other places from the tombs of chiefs (Polynesia and Africa) or from special fetish huts (Africa). Priests and cult servants were usually attached to them. Home sanctuaries for family rituals also exist; they consist of separate sections of a dwelling with cult objects and images. In the developed religions of a class society, sanctuaries often consist of impressive architectural structures, such as churches or temples.