Koyash lake. Koyashskoe s alt lake in Crimea

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:53

Nature is an amazing creator. She sometimes creates landscapes of stunning beauty. Lake Koyashskoye, a natural Crimean miracle, plays with an incredible color palette of the water surface. The fantastic lake has several unique factors at once. It is the most s alty on the Crimean peninsula (s alt concentration in its water is 350 g/l). In ancient times, a popular mineral was mined here. The lake is rich in healing mud.

Its waters change color depending on the season. With the onset of summer, the water mirror plays with richly colorful shades: from soft pink to intense red and bright orange. The lusciously colored waters of the lake contrast with the snow-white coast and the blue of the Black Sea, separated from the unusual reservoir by a hundred-meter strip that stretches for three kilometers - the Koyash bay. The picturesque Koyashskoe s alt lake in Crimea against the backdrop of the sea and the scorched steppe creates a fantastic picture.

Location of Lake Koyashskoe

OnOn the Kerch Peninsula, between Feodosia and Kerch, near the villages of Maryevka and Yakovenkovo, the Koyashskoye Lake sprawled. The unique reservoir is included in the territory of the Opuksky Reserve, which is spread over the outskirts of Kerch. The pink lake stretches across part of the dry and nondescript steppes of Cimmeria, the earth and air of which are oversaturated with s alts.

Once this picturesque lagoon was part of the Black Sea. The sea surf, rolling on land for two thousand years, formed a unique bay, separating it from the main water area with a narrow strip of land.

Why is Lake Koyashskoe pink-red?

Pink-red and orange shades of the lake are given by microscopic algae living in it, saturated with pigment of the corresponding color scheme. The characteristic color of the water is also given by the inhabitants of an extraordinary reservoir - Artemia crustaceans. Beta-carotene-producing algae not only color water and s alt crystals, they give them a delicate aroma of violets.

The more mercilessly the sun burns, the more amazing the lake looks. During the summer heat, the color of the water becomes most intense. As the water evaporates, the s alt dries up. Its crystals settle on the surface of the stones, towering above the mirror of the reservoir. Crystallization is so fleeting that boulders instantly turn into s alt icebergs. The edges of the lake are twitching with a snow-white edge, which, gradually expanding, captures the entire surface of the reservoir.

Water, receding from the coast in the summer heat, turns the surrounding landscape into a fantastic sight. Coastpink reservoir becomes snow-white from the crystallized s alt. During this period, Koyashskoye Lake (Crimea) resembles Martian landscapes. And s alt crystals are carried by the wind across the Cimmerian steppe. Excessively saline and sun-scorched steppe lands become practically lifeless, unsuitable for cultivation.

Only in spring, until mid-April, the expanses around the pink pond are covered with delicate greenery. During this tiny period, while the salinity in the lagoon does not go off scale, wildflowers and wild tulips bloom over the green carpet, and waterfowl nest. A little more, and the aquatic environment will become too aggressive for their normal life.

Description of the lake

The picturesque Koyash s alt lake, formed on the site of an extinct mud volcano, is small. The reservoir covers an area of 500 hectares. It is four kilometers long and two and a half kilometers wide. The depth of the pink lake, one might say, is negligible, it barely reaches one meter.

The salinity of the lake is incredibly high - 350 ppm (350 g of s alt is dissolved in one liter of water). It is a colossal chemical laboratory created by nature. Here, in a reservoir with an aggressive environment, it is as if microorganisms, plants and animals are being tested for survival. Various types of waders have adapted to life on the lake. For example, avocets, having taken a fancy to Lake Koyash in the spring, live on it until the beginning of autumn.

Healing mud

S alt pond, Koyashskoye lake, - excellenthealing source. Healing mud and brine, endowed with healing power, are concentrated in its basin. In terms of healing properties, these muds are not inferior to Saka silt deposits. The bottom of the lake is covered with valuable mud with a volume of 1.7 million m33.

Along the coast, which turns into a s alt desert at the height of summer, travelers carefully walk towards the water. Otherwise, it is impossible, because the basin of the reservoir is nothing more than a calmed mud volcano. A thick mud layer has been deposited under the s alt, in other places it is not only viscous, but also quicksand.

Lake Features

The reservoir is famous for both natural and cultural and historical riches. In the era of antiquity, the city of Kimmerik was located here, so many artifacts surround Lake Koyashskoe. Crimea in this place is dotted with ancient citadels, defensive walls, altars and altars. In addition, ancient wells and aqueducts have been preserved here.