Möbius Band, green maze and waterway. Exploring new and little-known VDNKh spots

Exhibition pavilions with unusual architecture, Europe’s largest oceanarium, majestic fountains, unique natural landscape elements and a museum city offering to learn the history of cinema and space exploration, see a miniature Moscow or what is happening inside a bee hive. VDNKh has long been a favorite place for spending leisure time among Muscovites of all ages. Every year, the country’s main exhibition offers cultural, educational, public spaces and unusual facilities, which often become new must-see attractions of the capital.

The Worker and Collective Farm Woman pavilion, the main entrance arch or the Friendship of Peoples fountain are well-known to every Muscovite and to many tourists. Not everyone however knows that VDNKh has a green maze, an eco trail hidden in the tree crowns, a pontoon promenade, and even Sochinskaya Gorka. Read further on mos.ru to learn more about these and other little-known and recently arranged sights.

Taking a perpetual walk over the Möbius Band

Opened in early summer, a landscape attraction called Möbius Band is a continuous walking route laid as an infinity symbol in the Cultivated Nature section of the landscape park, which is surrounded by the plants growing in the Garden of the Five Senses.

In fact, the urban trail encased in a golden metal box is 340 meters long. Its height reaches 9.5 meters, while the distance between the ground and the walking path is more than 8 meters. The route starts and ends at the same point.

It is named after the German astronomer, mathematician and mechanic August Möbius, and if you look at it from the outside and from the inside, it will seem to you that it smoothly rotates around its axis.

A walk among the oak trees

The Wildlife section of the landscape park invites to take a walk along the eco trail suspended among the tree crowns for walkers to see the protected Sheremetyevo oak forest and view VDNKh from an unusual angle. The place is home to ancient oaks, some of them are more than 200 years old. The signage along the route bears names, age and characteristics of local plants and also highlights the oak forest animal population.

Spanning 500 meters at the height of up to 6.5 meters, the eco trail is open for walks around the clock, and nicely lit in the evening it is especially beautiful.

Having a look at the waterfront pathway and lazing around on the embankment

In the landscape park on the banks of the 3rd Kamensky Pond, there is a deck with sun loungers and a wooden canopy protecting against the sun for locals to comfortably relax on benches in the shade of trees, admiring the well-groomed flower beds.

There is also a waterfront pathway with an artificially built stream and three playgrounds for kids. Young visitors can learn basic physics through gaming or find out how various sophisticated devices, such as dams, pumps, gutters, dampers and Archimedes’ screw, work. In summer, the place offers to enjoy beach arrangements.

Immersing into the realm of botany and visiting an observation deck

You can explore the vegetation world on the bank of the 4th Kamensky Pond in the Plantlife section of the landscape park, which hosts an exposition of ecosystems for visitors to take a fascinating journey into the realm of plants.

Walking along the paths, they will see mixed forest plantlife and meadow grasses growing in open spaces, say nothing of perennials that can be found by the waterfront.

Near the 3rd Kamensky Pond there is an observation deck offering a stunning view of the iconic landscape with the cascade ponds, the Golden Spike fountain and Pavilion No. 34 Cosmos.

Appreciating the pontoon promenade

In addition to the central part with fountains and rose gardens, there is a pontoon promenade — a no less picturesque place to see. The 1-meter wide and 100-meter long wooden walkway running over the water along the right bank of the 4th Kamensky Pond, which is nicely lit in the evenings, is perfect for taking a leisurely walk at any time of the year. 

Visiting an enfilade of game and reading rooms

In the Nature of Sciences and Arts section of the landscape park, visitors are welcome in the enfilade of game and reading rooms where nature merges with state-of-the-art architectural solutions, creating a remarkable space.

In a separate area in the shade of the trees, one can play chess, checkers or backgammon beneath a garden arch entwined with climbing green plants. Meanwhile, in a cozy spot, there is an outdoor reading room for book lovers to immerse themselves in the world of literature.

Finding a way out of the green maze

The Entertaining Nature section invites to meet challenges of a green maze, with outdoor activities and natural attractions being the meat and potatoes of the spot.

The main feature of the maze are local plants inspiring a whole range of feelings and emotions. Fear and uncertainty can be experienced when walking along the dark passage of tall and spiny fir trees, whereas fragrant thujas with soft needles bring peace and tranquility. Lindens will evoke love and joy, while apple trees inspire admiration and surprise.

The sixteen plant varieties with umbrella-shaped crowns, which grow in the center of each maze portion, and the green walls create an amazing combination.

Climbing Sochinskaya Gorka

Behind Pavilion No. 29 Floriculture, there is Sochinskaya Gorka (‘Sochi Hill’), a picturesque hillside decorated with retaining walls of Black Sea pebbles and limestone, with a white rotunda rising above, which is surrounded by flowers and grasses, for visitors to plunge into the warmth of the southern resort.

This green area was created in the 1970s by landscape architect Sergei Venchagov, a laureate of the USSR State Landscape Architecture Prize. In 2019, it was completely restored during the reconstruction of VDNKh. In the same year, at the Russian National Landscape Architecture Awards, Sochinskaya Gorka won the Silver Award — the Best Cultural Heritage Site and Landscape Art Restoration Project.