Lake Cochash. Koyash Salt Lake in the Crimea

Nature is an amazing creator. It sometimes creates stunning beauty scenery. Koyashskoe Lake, a natural Crimean miracle, plays an incredible color palette of water. The fantastic lake has several unique factors. It is the most salty on the Crimean peninsula (salt 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, depending on the season, change color. With the onset of summer, the water mirror plays richly colorful shades: from gently pink to intensely red and bright orange. The lushly colored waters of the lake contrast with the snow-white coastline and the blue of the Black Sea, separated from the unusual pond by a hundred-meter strip stretching for three kilometers-the Koyashsky perepoure. The picturesque Koyash salt lake in the Crimea against the background of the sea and the scorched steppe creates a fantastic picture.

Location of Lake Kojash

On the Kerch peninsula, between Feodosia and Kerch, near the villages Maryevka and Yakovenkovo, the Lake of Koyashsko was spread. A unique reservoir is included in the territory of the Opuk reserve, which stretches along the outskirts of Kerch. The pink lake extends over the dry and inconspicuous steppes of Cimmeria, the land and air of which are oversaturated with salts.

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 the Koyashsky Lake pink and red?

Pink-red and orange shades of the lake are given by the microscopic algae that live in it, saturated with a pigment of the corresponding color scale. The characteristic color of the water is still attached to the inhabitants of an unusual pond - shrimp artemia. Algae, producing beta-carotene, not only stain water and salt crystals, they give them a delicate aroma of violets.

The more merciless the sun is shining, the lake looks more amazing. During the summer baking , the water color becomes the most intense. With the evaporation of water, the salt dries. Its crystals settle on the surface of stones that rise above the mirror of the reservoir. Crystallization is so fleeting that stone blocks instantly turn into salt icebergs. The edges of the lake are twitched by a snow-white edge, which, gradually expanding, captures the entire surface of the reservoir.

Water, retreating from the coast in the summer heat, turns the surrounding landscape into a fantastic sight. The coast of the pink pond becomes snow-white from the crystallized salt. During this period, the Lake Koyash (Crimea) resembles the Martian landscapes. And the crystals of salt are carried by the wind along the Cimmerian steppe. Excessively saline and sun-burned steppe lands become practically lifeless, unsuitable for cultivation.

Only in the spring, until the middle of April, the expanses around the pink pond are wrapped in delicate greens. In this tiny period, until the salinity in the lagoon is off scale, wild flowers and wild tulips blossom over the green carpet, and water birds arrange nests. A little more, and the water environment will become too aggressive for their normal life.

Description of the lake

The picturesque Koyash salt lake, formed on the site of an extinct mud volcano, is small. The reservoir covers an area of 500 hectares. In length, it extends to four, and in width - to two with a small kilometer. The depth of the pink lake, it can be said, is negligible, it barely reaches one meter.

The salinity of the lake is incredibly high - 350 ppm (350 g of salt dissolved in one liter of water). It is a colossal chemical laboratory created by nature. Here, in a pond with an aggressive environment, as if tested for the survival of microorganisms, plants and animals. To life on the lake, various species of waders have adapted. For example, shiloklyuvki, having chosen a Kojashskoe lake in the spring, live on it until the beginning of autumn.

Healing mud

The salt pond, Lake Koyash, is an excellent source of healing. In its basin are concentrated healing mud and brine, endowed with healing power. According to their healing properties, these muds are not inferior to the Saki silt sediments. The bottom of the lake is covered with valuable mud of 1.7 million m ³ .

On the coast, which in the height of summer turns into a salt desert, travelers neatly wander to the water. Otherwise, it is impossible, because the basin of the reservoir is nothing but a muffled mud volcano. A thick mud layer was deposited under the salt, not only viscous, but also unsteady in other places.

Features of the lake

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