In March 2021, the Russian segment of social networks was surrounded by a striking photograph. The bank of a large river depicted on it, with its outline, strongly resembled a woman’s face. The caption said that in front of us is the Selenga River in Buryatia. We checked whether this is actually true.

The image gained the most popularity on Facebook. For example, publication, made on March 19 by one resident of Buryatia, received about 8,000 reposts (as of April 23, 2021). Also became quite viral publication channel “Created by Nature” - 2800 reposts.

River Selenga (emphasis on the last syllable, contrary to the obsessive advertising financial pyramid of the 1990s) flows through the territory of Mongolia (615 km) and Russia (409 km). Soon after the picture spread around the Internet, the first incredulous readers appeared. People asked to tell them the coordinates of the miracle of nature captured in the frame, since they themselves, having studied the maps, could not find anything similar.

At the same time, it turned out that the image had already begun to conquer the rest of the world under the guise of the African Zambezi River. For example, publication one Kenyan user with the corresponding signature received almost 1,000 shares.

Searching for the earliest traces of photography on the Internet yields a somewhat unexpected result. It turns out that this is not a photograph at all. On two sites dedicated to art at once - Gallerix And Artonline.ru — we see in front of us a painting made, according to the signature, in acrylic. The author of the work entitled “Pacification” is St. Petersburg artist Natalya Livitchuk. The image was posted on both resources in 2016, and the painting can even be purchased using the second link.

We contacted Natalia Livitchuk, and this is how she commented on the spring popularity of “Selenga-Zambezi”:

“I don’t understand the fuss about my work at all. I wrote it in 2016. I came from the dacha and wanted to portray my attitude towards nature and the universe. Convey a state of peace and tranquility. I didn’t imagine any specific region... I depicted the river that was in my soul at that moment. And this curiosity shows that people are very easy to deceive.”