All about lake Sivash

There are reservoirs that cannot be described with a couple of words, presented with a series of even the most talented photographs, displayed in a single film, so that the idea of ​​them is complete, exhaustive. For example, those that have been heard about by virtually everyone, and which do not need special advertising. And if you say Volga, you mean - majestic, if Baikal is incredible, and everything is completely outstanding, legendary, special places. As they say, they are easy to love and read.

There are reservoirs that do not collect such rave reviews, and they often need to take a closer look. But then the special charm, charm and ambiguity of the first perception opens. Lake Sivash is one of those.

The first written mentions of the lake belong to the first century of our era - Strabo, the Roman author, calls Lake Sivash the Rotten Sea and describes it in some detail. In the second century, Claudius Ptolemy mentions the reservoir, but on his map he captures the lake with minor errors.

Although, perhaps, there is no error: there are some historians who believe that if two thousand years ago the level of the Black Sea was different from the present, so much to say about the lake.

What kind of a reservoir is this - let's understand.

To be precise in the definitions, Sivash (the name comes from the Crimean Tatar word, which means “dirt”) is a bay located in the west of the Sea of ​​Azov.

This bay separates the Crimean peninsula from the mainland. Since 2014, a new section of the Russian-Ukrainian water boundary, the length of which is 146 km, passes through the water area of ​​the lake.

The area of ​​the lake is 2560 square kilometers.

Since the Sivash is a shallow pool, in summer, the water in the lake warms significantly, which leads to the formation of a putrid odor. Hence the name - Rotten sea. By the way, for the same reason, there is an active evaporation of sea water, which is fraught with strong mineralization of the Sivash.

Those who travel to see (capture on film, study) the most interesting reservoirs in Russia are surely prescribed in the Crimea point, where they simply run from the number of places that need to be seen: from Kalamitsky Bay (often confused, calling Klay Bay) the same Sivash.

But distinguish only two of them - Western and Eastern Sivash.

The first one attracts more attention, its length from west to east - 70 km, connects two Sivash small and narrow Chongar Strait.

The Sivash system itself is quite complex: the combination of water and land is not easy to name - numerous peninsulas and islands alternated with stretches, straits and even bays. The lake complex, as already noted, is shallow: the greatest depth of the reservoir is barely 3 m, and mostly 0.5-1 m - this is its most frequent depth.

All tourists are primarily interested in the present state of the lake, and not in mentioning it in ancient sources (although this is interesting). Well, the Sivash is a shallow pool separated from the sea, which means that He is the lagoon of the Azov Sea.

The water in this lagoon is both bitter and salty at the same time: algae rot there, which makes the smell of water emanate far from pleasant. Hydrogen sulfide is clearly guessed in it.

In calm weather, with clear water almost anywhere on the lagoon, you can easily see the muddy bottom. Salt even penetrated into the soil, because the shores of Sivash can not be called teeming with life.

Green grass is not visible, especially trees and other stormy vegetation. Instead of her, gray wormwood, sullen Kermek and hodgepodge: only they can’t salt and heat.

The concentration of salts in the waters of the Sivash is seriously higher than in the Black and Azov seas, and almost 17 times. This mineralized water is called brine.

Is it bad or good? If you are a researcher or just a lover of nature, then You will like the Sivash - it can be called a real natural laboratory, where mineral salts accumulate in an interesting way.

And scientists have learned exactly how this happens: about a millimeter of water evaporates from a centimeter of the square water surface of a lake a year. And precipitation falls only 300 mm.

There is also information that the total amount of moisture evaporated by a Sivash in a year is almost half of all the mass of water in it. You do not need to be a scientist to understand: if the Sivash has not yet disappeared from the face of the earth, if the amount of water in it nevertheless is almost constant, it means that water is constantly flowing from outside.

And it comes, as it turns out, from the Sea of ​​Azov through the Strait of Genic.

This is an estuary, drainless lake where hundreds of clips and films could be shot, as the place is unique in its natural beauty.

Such an "glamorous" color of the reservoir gives an unusual alga called dunaliella, which allocates about three dozen carotenoids, the most valuable of which can be considered beta-carotene.

How much beta-carotene is in brine, the lake will have such an intense color: from pinkish to bright red.

Everyone knows that many southern reservoirs are distinguished by pronounced healing properties.

And the Sivash, in the title of which the word “mud” is guessed when translated, is in itself associated with treatment, restoration, healing power.

Mud procedures are also recommended for those who have problems with the musculoskeletal system, who know firsthand about arthritis, arthrosis, and osteochondrosis.

Someone will like the information that healing mud can stock up: for her collection will not take money.

Healing properties have both the dirt itself and the brine.

• Brine. It includes elements that are considered natural liver cell cleaners. It is for this reason that people who are bathing in Sivash drunk, come out of it pretty sober. It's not worth checking for yourself, but the fact is interesting. If you believe the responses (and there are a lot of them), then the influence of the brine on the musculoskeletal system of the human body is, indeed, great. Someone retreated, long-standing osteochondrosis considerably softened, and someone had no more old injuries of bones and joints. People come here to get rid of dermatological diseases, and many succeed in it.
• Therapeutic mud. Look for her for a long time not to. The top layer of mud is gray, since light and air contact occurs. But it is possible to use not only gray clay, because the black healing mud that is deeper is truly healing. By the way, Sivash healing mud has a reputation as a curative not because of obtrusive unreasonable advertising: it has undergone the necessary clinical studies, is certified, and indeed it is possible to be treated with it.

But it is impossible to speak about the development of infrastructure in the zone of this lake.

For tourists, this interesting area has just been improved, in connection with which many travelers come here to savages, live in tents.

Climate and soil features dictate their conditions to the flora and fauna of the Prisivash. In particular, they attract birds to the cabin, and even some birds! Here relic strepta was seen, which was previously seen only in the Azov steppes. From the saline lakes of Europe and Asia, galagaz flies here. Interestingly, pheasants have recently been raised on these islands.

Local plants, as already mentioned, the wealth is not impressive, although depending on what we are talking about. For example, every botanist (and just an interested tourist) will be interested to visit the Kalinovsky landscape park. It is located in the Dzhankoy district near the village of Transparent: its area is 12,000 hectares. It was created specifically for the preservation of wetlands.

In the park area grow natural associations of the various steppes of the Crimea - and zonal-desert, and sod-grass, and pale grass.

The fauna of the park is also curious: there you can see cormorants, gulls, sandpipers. In total, about one and a half hundred birds live in the territories belonging to the reserve, including the yellow heron, white-tailed eagle, steppe crane and others.

By the way, in the village relatively recently restored the estate Shatilova. There are arranged exhibitions of contemporary artists, and conduct unique night tours.

In the light of numerous candles, guests walk on the estate, admiring the creations of the Crimean painters.

To understand how to build a route, you need to know which localities are as close as possible to Sivash. These are: Dzhankoy, Saki, Yevpatoria, Krasnoperekopsk, Armyansk, Genichesk, Novoalekseevka.

You can get in different ways.

1. Own car: coming from Simferopol along the M-17, E-105. Closest to the capital of Crimea Evpatoria, the stop is called Sasyk-Sivash.
2. Any bus, which is moving towards the border with Ukraine. If you are going to rest a savage, then already in the process of a bus journey you will see places suitable for this purpose. And if the wild rest is not for you, there are resorts and resorts in the area, but you should take care of the places in them in advance.
3. The electric trains going from Dzhankoy and Novoalekseevka. There is a direct transport to the Salt Lake. The train schedule can be seen in the courtyard of the railway station in Simferopol.

The most probably beautiful place in this area is the Arabat Spit.

On one side of it - the Sea of ​​Azov, on the other - healing springs.

On the peninsula of Crimea there are so many interesting, unique, and often undervalued places, the names of which even residents of nearby territories confuse (such as the town of Schelkino is called Schelkovo).

Someone brings from the Crimea only tan and wine, while others bring unique photos and videos of local lakes worthy of everyone’s attention.

Sasyk-Sivash, the very Pink Lake, is also famous for its salt fishing. And this salt is valuable not only taste. Its composition is rich in macro-and micronutrients, including calcium, sodium chloride.

The Crimean salt is known from the most ancient times, there are even documents of its international level: they date back to 1912, when this product took the first place at the world exhibition.

Pink composition is better absorbed, does not lead to edema, removes toxins, washes away excess water, strengthens the immune system. Salt is rich in iodine, because its reasonable use contributes to the normalization of hormonal levels of both men and women.

Just imagine: unusual, unique lakes with healing water, salt, mud, as well as stunning landscapes and the possibility of a wild holiday surrounded by impressive Crimean nature. And such a vacation can be budget and memorable: it means you have to go!

You can learn about the therapeutic mud of the lake from the video below.