Tyva is one of the most interesting regions of Russia in terms of nature. Located in the center of Asia, the republic surprisingly accommodates almost all the natural zones of our vast country. Remembering my trip to the republic, I have more than once caught myself thinking that I had visited another planet – so unusual were for me, a resident of Russia, the steppe and desert landscapes under a hot sky, decorated with the multicolored wonderful lakes. Here we will talk about them.
Salt of the earth
Generally, these lakes, located on the territory of the Republic of Tyva, are salty because they do not have drains. Depending on the dissolved salts, the color of the water surface can vary from piercing sapphire, sky blue or turquoise to pale pink or lilac, which gives them an unusual colorfulness.
But this is not the only reason why salt lakes are attractive. All of them have been known since ancient times as therapeutic. The history of water-mud treatment goes back deep into ancient times, when locals and nomads used mud and mineral water to get rid of various diseases and wounds. And nowadays their medicinal properties have not lost their relevance.
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Lakes in the hot steppe are also a kind of oasis for representatives of the bird tribe. Especially many birds accumulate here during seasonal migrations – in spring and autumn.
Many lakes of Tyva are sacred to the locals. This is evidenced by the ceremonial places on their shores, decorated with colorful ribbons (chalama).
Healing lakes
The lakes Khadyn, Cheder, and Dus-Khol (Svatikovo) are not only the most famous and visited, but also the closest to the capital of the republic – the city of Kyzyl. In the huge Lake Khadyn (area – 24 km2, Tandinsky District), declared a natural monument in 1982, the water is slightly salty. This is a favorite vacation spot of the townspeople. Since 1932, a resort has been operating on the therapeutic Lake Cheder (Kyzylsky District), where mud baths are used to treat various diseases. The drinking mineral water of the resort contains sodium chloride.
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The saltiest of these three lakes is Dus-Khol (Russian name Svatikovo), located in the Tandinsky District. It feeds on mineral springs located on the southern and eastern shores of the lake. The length of the lake is 1,400m, width – up to 500m, depth – up to 4m. The southern and western shores are sandy, convenient for swimming; the northern and eastern are partially swampy. The salinity of the water in Dus-Khol is very high, up to 280 g/l.
Myriads of red crustaceans up to 15mm long – Artemia – live in the highly salt-saturated water of the lake. Their large number gives the water a pink hue. During their short life, the crustaceans actively filter water, passing it through their body, which helps to cleanse the lake of pollution. The dying bodies of the crustaceans have been accumulating at the bottom for centuries and are mixed with silt and salt, resulting in the formation of mud with medicinal properties. The unique lake was declared a natural monument in 1982. The highly salt-saturated water and bottom mud of the lake treat diseases of the organs of movement, spine, bones, peripheral and central nervous systems, blood vessels, gynecological diseases, the initial stages of hypertension, hemorrhoids.
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Small Lake Kok-Khol is located 3km west of Dus-Khol. It is also highly salty, the water surface area is insignificant, the shores and bottom are covered with a layer of dark mud up to 1m thick. The mud is soft, gentle, smells of hydrogen sulfide and surpasses the mud of many famous resorts in its healing properties.
Away from the big roads
Lake Ak-Khol is located in an intermountain depression in the south-west of the Republic of Tyva, in the Mongun-Taiginsky District, near the border with the Republic of Altai. Translated from Tyvan, the name means "white lake". Its area is 3.76 km2, length – 4km, width – 4km, depth – up to 10m. It is of glacial origin, lies at an altitude of just over 2,000m above sea level, and in summer its slightly mineralized water warms up to 22°C. The lake water helps in the treatment of varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, skin diseases, as well as in wound healing.
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Along the shores of the lake, halophyte plants (salt-loving plants) grow abundantly. They adapted to saline soils, and some of them are of a characteristic red color.
In the vicinity of the lake you can see a number of ring kurgans of ancient nomads. The nearest settlements are tens of kilometers away from the lake.
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Lake Bai-Khol (from Tyvan "rich lake") is located in the south of Tyva, in the Erzinsky District, 12km from the district center – the village of Erzin. It is located in a deep endorheic basin and is surrounded by sandy shores. The bottom is covered with a layer of black silt. The area of the water surface is more than 3km2. The water in the lake is salty, chloride-sulfate, sodium-magnesium. According to its balneological characteristics, the lake's water is on par with the popular Lake Dus-Khol (Svatikovo).
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Interestingly, there is at least one (and some say more) lake with the same name in the republic. The second Dus-Khol (Erzinskoe) is located in the very south of the Republic of Tyva, in the Erzinsky District, in the northeastern part of the Uvs Lake Basin. The lake lies at an altitude of 990m above sea level, its dimensions are 2x2km, the area of the water surface is 1.68km2, the maximum depth is only 0.6m.
The lake is extremely picturesque: the pink-colored water surface is surrounded by steppe cliffs, on the horizon there are the sacred mountains of Bolshoy and Maly Khayyrakan. The lake is terminal, with sandy shores, with thick layer of black silt at the bottom. Lake water is very salty (salt content reaches 25%), mainly contains sodium-magnesium and chloride-sulfate impurities.
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The pink-red color of the water is explained by the high concentration of salt-tolerant red Artemia crustaceans in it. On the dried-up areas of the lake there are large accumulations of large lamellar gray crystals of rock salt – halite. The thickness of salt deposits reaches 0.3-0.5 m. The bottom of the lake is covered with a crust of salt, under which there is a layer of dark gray silt 1.5m thick. Despite its remarkable balneological qualities, the lake is quite rarely visited.
Freshwater lakes
In addition to many salt lakes, there are several freshwater lakes in Tyva. The name of one of them, a rather large Lake Khindiktig-Khol in the Mongun-Taiginsky District, translated from Tyvan sounds funny: "lake with a navel." The reason for this is a large domed island in the middle, which rises 153m above the water surface. There are two islands on the lake in total, both formed by outcrops of bedrock. The lake is located on the border of the Altai mountain ranges and the Sayano-Tyva Mountains, at the foot of Mongun-Taiga massif, framing it in the east, and the spurs of the Shapshal Range in the west and north.
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The lake is about 15km long and 8.6km wide. In terms of the water surface area of 92.4km2, it ranks third in the republic after Uvs Lake and Tore-Khol and 178th in Russia. The lake lies at an altitude of 2,305m above sea level, the prevailing depths are 30-40m, the maximum is 70m.
The lake's nourishment is mixed, mainly glacial. Even in the hottest time in July, its surface layer warms up only to 13°C, and at a depth of 5-6m the water temperature is only 8°C. The water is very clean. Its transparency reaches 20m. The lake is rich in fish, among the most valuable species is grayling. In the past, a local fishing crew worked here.
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Another freshwater lake Tore-Khol ("tore" means "stirrup" in Tyvan) is a natural monument of republic significance. It is located 20km southwest of the village of Erzin. Another border lake – its southern part is located in Mongolia. The surface area of the Russian part of the reservoir is about 35km2, the Mongolian part is 7km2. The lake is located at an altitude of 1,149m above sea level, its dimensions are 16x4km, the area is 42km2. The average depth is 7m. The shores of the lake are sand dunes up to 12m high . The lake is bounded on the northeast by the sands of the Tsugeer-Els, the northernmost tip of the Gobi Desert, and on the southeast by the sands of the Eder-Elezin.
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In summer, the surface layers of water warm up, and in mid-August in the afternoon the water temperature reaches 21°C at an air temperature of 32°C. The lake is fed by springs flowing from the surrounding sand dunes.
The lake is inhabited by the Altai osman, an endemic of the reservoirs of Central Asia from the carp family, which is represented by two forms: dwarf, feeding on algae and small aquatic invertebrates; and large, feeding on dwarf forms. The lake is also home to osman and common pike, released here in 1972. In the vicinity of the lake, the remnants of the weathering of the Kara-Kai ("black rock") and Kyzyl-Kaya ("red rock") are particularly attractive. From the historical monuments in the vicinity of the lake, numerous kurgans, steles, deer stones have been preserved – witnesses of the ancient nomadic life of various Asian peoples.
Protected lake
Uvs Lake is also a border lake, located simultaneously on the territories of Russia and Mongolia. It has a special status because it is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site. The Russian part of the lake, located in the south of Tyva, is only a small part of the lake and the coast in its northern part (12km2, or 0.3% of the total area). The length of the Russian coastline is about 10km. The total area of the lake is 3,350km2, the length is 85km, the maximum width is 80km, the maximum depth is 20m.
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The Russian part of the lake is part of the Uvs Lake Basin State Natural Biosphere Reserve. The water of the lake is bitter and salty, resembling sea water in taste, corresponding to the average salinity of the Black Sea. The ionic composition of the salt is mainly represented by sulfates and sodium. The lake is terminal, the largest tributary is the Tes River, which flows into the eastern part of the lake.
The lake basin is distinguished by an unusually rich animal world: more than 170 species of birds, 40 species of mammals, about 30 species of fish are registered here. Of the birds, more than 20 species are listed in the Red Book of Russia, including the demoiselle crane, the saker falcon, the black-winged stilt. Along the shores of the lake there are numerous kurgans of ancient nomads – Mongols, Huns, Yenisei Kyrgyz…
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That's the end of our little trip. Tyva is an amazing place. In just one day here you can see tundra, taiga, forest-steppe, steppe, and a real desert with dunes! Traveling through deserted and uninhabited places, you constantly feel the breath of the centuries-old history of the nomadic peoples of this ancient region. And its diverse lakes serve as a landscape decoration of this beautiful world.
Vladimir Gorbatovsky