Salt lakes are amazing a natural phenomenon. They are found on all continents, including Antarctica. In Russia and America there are entire areas where there are a lot of such lakes.

The largest salt lake

Lake Uyuni is recognized as the largest salt lake in the world. It is located in the south of the Bolivian desert plain. Its area is 19582 sq. km. This figure is a record. The bottom of the lake is covered with a layer of salt; its thickness, depending on the topography, reaches up to eight meters. The lake fills with water only during the rainy season and becomes like a perfect mirror surface.

This lake is of interest to numerous tourists who come to Uyuni to see the incomparable landscapes of the salt desert. They are especially attracted by the diversity of the landscape of Lake Uyuni - this active volcanoes, huge salt deserts, geysers and cactus islands. Residents of nearby villages use the salt of this reservoir for food, make souvenirs from it, and even build houses.


Salt lakes of Russia

Hereby natural wealth Russia has multiple salt lakes. IN Volgograd region There is a lake called Elton. Interestingly, its surface is golden pink. The water and local mud are believed to have healing properties. Near this reservoir there are health resorts.


In the same places there is Lake Bulukhta. It's bitter- salt Lake is second in the area after Elton, but it does not have medicinal properties, there is no medicinal mud in it. Getting to the reservoir is not easy; it is located among wild nature.

Lake Razval near Sol-Iletsk is another salt lake. The history of this lake is closely connected with the history of the Iletsk field. Today it is famous resort. The concentration of salt in its water is very high; it is impossible to drown in such a body of water. The lake was formed at the site where the salt production of Mount Tuztube was carried out. Its depth is about eighteen meters. The salt concentration in Razval is ten times higher than in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.


Baskunchak is a salt lake located on the top of a salt mountain. This is the saltiest and one of the largest salt lakes on the planet. It is located in Astrakhan region. The wealth of the reservoir is brine and medicinal clay. This makes the lake interesting for those who want to improve their health.

There are not many salt lakes in Russia, but others are striking in their size. You can read more about the largest lakes in Russia on the website.


Salt lakes of the Altai region

The Altai region is famous for its salt lakes. One of them is Lake Yarovoye. It is located in the Kulunda steppe. This endorheic reservoir is one of the deepest in this region. The lake stretches for eleven kilometers. In the summer months, vacationers who want to receive treatment come to him.


The main asset of the lake is brine, which contains many mineral salts. It is impossible to dive headlong into this body of water due to the high salt content in the water. His main healing factors– silt mud, water and air. Another large and deep salt lake is Kulundinskoye. No less famous is Raspberry Lake. It owes its name to the fact that in the morning fog in spring its surface acquires a crimson color. The rest of the year it is brown. Pond water is considered beneficial for the skin.

Salt lakes in America

One of America's natural attractions is its salt lakes. The largest is the Great Salt Lake. It is drainless, which explains its excessive salinity. The indicator varies from one hundred to three hundred ppm. There are practically no living organisms in it, and it is also unsuitable for swimming. Due to the lack of vegetation around it, the reservoir resembles one located in Israel Dead sea.


There are many small salty drainless lakes on the southern plateaus of the Cordillera. Their level directly depends on precipitation. These lakes are all that remains of the Bonneville salt lake, which practically dried up seventeen thousand years ago.

The saltiest lake in the world

It is difficult to say unambiguously which lake is the most saline among all the salt lakes on the planet. Two such bodies of water can be especially highlighted.


There is a desert in Antarctica called the Dry Valleys. It was there that Lake Vida was discovered. It lies under kilometers of gravel and ice. According to scientists, the water in the lake did not freeze only because of the high salt content in it. There is no exact data on the salt content in the lake, but it is estimated to be about 40 percent. It is quite possible that the reservoir is inhabited. This assumption appeared after frozen bacteria were discovered in the immediate vicinity of the reservoir.

Don Juan is another lake in Antarctica. It was found completely by accident in 1961 by helicopter pilots. It was named after them. The salt content in it reaches 40.2 percent, thanks to which it does not freeze even at an incredibly low temperature of 53 degrees. Over the past few decades, the reservoir has significantly decreased in size, and its depth has also decreased. Today, with an area of ​​0.03 sq. km, its depth is only 0.1 m.
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Published: 15.03.2017 Category: Author's essay

Deposits of minerals dissolved in water are one of the main riches of our country. They are a material for water and mud therapy. Such geological assets are valuable due to their composition and seasonal temperature patterns (both of which are associated with medicinal properties). By visiting the salt lakes of Russia, in addition to seeing the “cosmic” landscapes (what the shores of such reservoirs look like), you will heal diseases of the skin and respiratory tract.

The most famous salt lakes in Russia – Chans, and Disruption.

This is the largest salt lake in Russia by area. Its size during a spill reaches 2,000 square kilometers! This is a system of reaches that are connected by dozens of channels. They were formed on the territory of today Novosibirsk region, on the land adjacent to locality Novoyablonovka. From this small village there is a dirt road leading to Chany, which disappears during the muddy season. The large space allows seasonal navigation to be organized in the main water area of ​​the lake. The vats are dangerous in bad weather - the waves can capsize a small ship. Closest to this location railroad station- Chistoozernoe. This lake has no medicinal value.

Almost all the salt lakes of Russia are located in its most arid (arid) zone - at the point where the borders of our state and the Republic of Kazakhstan meet.

As already mentioned, the salty healing lakes of Russia are located at the junction of the closest Central Asian country to us.

The Elton Lowland is essentially a neutral zone with Kazakhstan, although the lake itself belongs entirely to the Russian Federation, namely to the Volgograd region. This body of water has the reputation of being the lowest of the salt lakes. After all, Elton is several tens of meters below sea level. Its name is translated from Mongolian as “golden”. This is the color that local algae gives to the water. The surface here is so salty that it is impossible to drown on it... You can get here through the railway junction of the same name. There is a road from Bykovo and Pallasovka. Read our full review about this amazing lake:

The water of this natural reservoir is called “bitter-salty”. Thanks to this, he ended up in the presented ranking. The unique taste of the lake is given by the springs that flow here. Therefore, from the Kalmyk language the indicated hydronym is translated as “spring”. It is next on the list of the most mineralized lakes. Bulukhta is located in the same place - in the Volgograd region, in the depths of the Pallasovsky district. Its territory is a semi-desert, equal in area to Israel... The banks of the “spring” drainless bowl are very swampy. You can get to the snow-white surface only along two paths.

“Liquid salt marsh” is popular because only here (of all the objects on this list) can you find sand beach. This is the former edge of a mud volcano. True, grains of quartz in the picturesque desert tract are heavily mixed with salt crystals. However, local residents use the reaches as a river resort. The location of the lake is the southeastern outskirts of the town of Sol-Iletsk (Orenburg region on the border with Kazakhstan). The location is part of an active rock salt mine. Its concentration here is almost 200 grams per liter of water. There are mud baths on the coast that exploit the beneficial properties of the local brine and bottom sediments.

The salt lakes of Russia far exceed in their usefulness the Dead Sea (which we choose when wondering where to go on vacation in March). Their water contains more chloride-sulfide and magnesium-sodium compounds, and the lipid complex of silt mud is more active. And brine reflects ultraviolet radiation more strongly (which in moderate doses is also recognized as healthy).

In our vast Russia there are many salt lakes, the beauty and uniqueness of which is incomparable. The Dead Sea in Israel in terms of mineral content is currently compared with Lake Elton in the Volgograd region (140-200 ‰), Lake Baskunchak in the Astrakhan region (300 ‰), Lake Medvezhye in the Kurgan region (350-360) and Lake Razval in Orenburg region(300‰).

You can find a healing lake in almost any region of the country. Here's the whole list.

Stavropol Territory - Tambukan, Salt Lake - Petrovsky district, Solenoe Lake village, Salt Lake is located between the villages of Krasnogvardeyskoye and Ladovskaya Balka, 9 km southeast of the Medvezhensky village of Krasnogvardeysky district.

Astrakhan region - Lake Baskunchak, city of Akhtubinsk, Tinaki, Federal Budgetary Institution Rehabilitation Center of the Federal Social Insurance Fund of the Russian Federation "Tinaki".

Volgograd region - Lake Elton, Lake Bulukhta, Botkul (Salty mud of Botkaly-Sor).

Krasnodar Territory - Salt Lake (Veselovka settlement), Khanskoye Lake in Yeisk, Ubezhinsky Mud Salt Lakes.

Khakassia - Lake Tus, Lake Shira.

Rostov region - Lake Pelekino.

Novosibirsk region - Salt Lake (Novoklyuchi), Lake Plakhino, Krasnozersky Sanatorium, Krasnozersky miracle - lake.

Republic of Tuva - Healing lake Dus-Khol (Svatikovo) Kyzyl, Lake Kok-Khol, Lake Khadyn, Cheder Resort, Hot Springs Ush-Beldir and Tarys.

Omsk region - Ebeyty, Lake Ulzhay.

Altai Territory - Bolshoye Yarovoye, Salty Lake (village Zavyalovo), Gorky Lake, Raspberry Lake.

Kurgan region - Bear Lake, Gorkoye Lake (Zverinogolovskoye), Gorkoye-Victoria (Schuchansky district)

Chelyabinsk region - Lake Gorkoe (village Khomutino)

Orenburg region - Lake Razval, lake Zhetykol village. Ozerny.

Tyumen Region - Salt Lake is located 1 km away. from the village of Okunevo, Berdyuzhsky district.

Buryatia – Lake Kiran.

I was able to visit Salt Lake near the village of Veselovka on Taman Peninsula and the Tizdar mud volcano. In addition to sources, mud can also be found on the coastal strip if you dig a hole in hills or gentle slopes. Mud and water Sea of ​​Azov have medicinal properties.

Healing lakes Russia (mineral lakes) - contain unique sets of microelements, water has natural antiseptic properties, mud is a natural health complex. Treatment of diseases on the salt lake occurs due to several factors: ultraviolet radiation, brine, silt mud. After swimming, when you come out of the lake and dry off, you are immediately covered with a thin white layer of salt, which crumbles off.

I would like to focus on several of the most popular resorts in the country on the Lakes and tell a little about them.

This is Lake Tambukan, located near Pyatigorsk. Tambukan mud belongs to the group of silt, highly mineralized, medium-sulfide mud. The mineralization of mud ranges from 30 to 100 grams per liter. It also contains calcium, magnesium, selenium, silver, strontium, manganese, as well as some organic compounds. Tambukan mud is an amazing natural antioxidant that can provide rejuvenating and cleansing effects, improves skin microcirculation and blood circulation, simultaneously activates skin immunity and metabolism, stimulates regenerative processes, which allows for the removal of waste and toxins, normalizes skin balance by breaking down fats and adsorbing excess skin fat, moisturizing and toning the skin.

Buryatia, Lake Kiran. The bottom of the lake is composed of healing silt. The salts contain sodium chlorides, sulfates and carbonates. The healing mud of Lake Kiran is used not only by local medical institutions, but is also exported outside the Kyakhta region. Indications for treatment at Kirana are essentially no different from those for most mud resorts, namely: chronic diseases of the joints, bones, muscles of various etiologies, diseases of the peripheral nervous system (neuralgia, neuritis, neurositis, plexitis, polyneuritis), chronic inflammatory diseases female genital area, pelvic tissue and peritoneum and some types of chronic eczema, as well as diseases of the male reproductive system. Muds are also used in cosmetology.

Lake Shira in Khakassia. The healing properties of lake water have become widely known since the second half of the 19th century. An active participant in the establishment of a resort here was the Tomsk gold merchant Z. M. Tsibulsky. According to legend, Tsibulsky noticed that his dog, accidentally wounded by him while hunting near a lake and left to a local resident died while swimming in the lake, healed her wounds and ran home completely healthy. Deciding to check how healing the lake water was, Tsibulsky tried to treat his old radiculitis with baths and, indeed, got rid of the disease. A number of resort and medical institutions arose on the shore of the lake, united under the name “Resort “Lake Shira””. Mineral lake water is similar to the Batalinskaya water of the Caucasus and contains a salt concentration of 17-20 g/liter. Silt mud extracted from the bottom of the reservoir is also used for treatment.

And, of course, healing nature Altai Territory saved a lot for us healing lakes. Lake Bolshoye Yarovoye. Therapeutic mud of Lake Bolshoye Yarovoye is used for arthrosis, arthritis, joint deformities, adhesions in the abdominal cavity and pelvis. In gynecology, mud is used to treat chronic endometritis, menstrual irregularities, infertility, and recurrent miscarriage. In andrology, lake mud is used to treat chronic prostatitis and sexual disorders. The mud in Lake Bolshoye Yarovoye has indicators that are not inferior to the mud resorts of the Crimea and the Caucasus (Saki, Staraya Russa). The treatment effect on Lake Yarovoye is 90%.

Raspberry Lake. History of the lake. Foreigners who were lucky enough to share a meal with the Great Empress Catherine II were surprised by the unusual pinkish-raspberry salt served to the table. They had never seen such a curiosity anywhere else. And the Russians knew that it was brought from the far-distant Kulunda steppe, located at the foot of Altai mountains. But few could visit those distant places - it was so difficult to get there. There were only legends that there was a huge splashing there. pink lake, after bathing in which, unborn women soon bring babies, and the pockmarked ones become prettier.

The bitter-salty water in it is pink-crimson in color, this shade gives it a special phytoplankton. Another feature of this lake is its supply of medicinal mud. Unique natural object At the same time, it is not protected in any way: it does not have the status of a specially protected natural area, even at the local level. Meanwhile, together with the pine forest and the vegetation of the salt marshes, Raspberry Lake is a unique natural complex in need of protection.

According to research conducted by the Research Institute of Balneology and Physiotherapy, employees of the Altai State Medical University, the most promising for therapeutic use in resort and non-resort conditions are brine, mud and clay from the lakes: Bolshoye and Maloye Yarovoe, Solenoye, Krivoye, Belenkoye, Krivaya Puchina, Kulundinskoye, Kuchuk, Syropyatovskoe, Kharkovskoe, Guseletovskoe, Gorkoe-Melnikovskoe, Cormorant, Baklanenok, Lechebnoe, Malinovoe, Bolshoye Mormyshanskoe, Gorkoe, Gorkoe-Ispereshechnoe, Shchekulduk.

The beauty of Russian nature must be used rationally by us and preserved for posterity. Have a good trip and stay healthy!

Salt lakes have always been popular in Russia. Medical sanatoriums have been built near most of them, because the water and mud of such reservoirs have a high content of minerals. And vacationers who come to such lakes as savages are not averse to getting smeared with mud. We decided to find out which lake in our country is the saltiest, and it turned out that there are two contenders for this title.

Elton - lake with pink-golden water

Elton is one of the most mineralized lakes on the planet. Experts estimate the salinity of this lake at 200-500 ppm, and this is one and a half times more than in the Dead Sea.

This figure fluctuates because different time year, the reservoir has different concentrations of minerals due to water evaporation. This also affects the depth of the reservoir: in summer the lake becomes very shallow, up to 5-7 centimeters, and in spring the depth reaches one and a half meters.


Elton is located in the Volgograd steppe, a round reservoir is surrounded by plains. Since the time of Ivan the Terrible, salt was mined here (until 1882), but at the beginning of the twentieth century, the production was moved to Lake Baskunchak (where the salt is without any impurities), and a sanatorium was opened on the shore of Elton. It was then that the resort history of the lake began.

Members of the royal family and representatives of the aristocracy came to the resort to improve their health, and the famous doctor, founder of national gynecology Snegirev wrote: “I have never seen such brilliant results from treatment with healing springs as in Elton, neither in Russia, nor in the Caucasus, nor abroad.”. Now it’s hard to imagine what Elton was once like prestigious resort, but here something has been preserved from the baths of Catherine the Great. The ancient nomads also knew about the magical properties of the lake; treatment at that time went something like this: they dug a hole near the shore, placed the patient there for an hour, and then washed him with brine (concentrated water with salt and minerals) from the lake.

But let’s ignore the healing properties of water, Elton is beautiful without them:



Its shores are strewn with snow-white salt crystals that sparkle in the sun, and the water is an amazing golden-pink color. Elton’s pinkish tint is given by special algae, and in the afternoon and especially towards sunset the water shimmers with gold. By the way, this unusual property is reflected in the name: Elton from the Kazakh “Altyn-Nur” means “golden lake”.

The coastline is very diverse (and the lake is large, with an area of ​​approximately 152 sq. km): there are beaches, shallow waters, salt marshes, ravines, picturesque flowing rivers, and valleys. During the hot season, you can simply wander around the lake itself. And for photographers, there is a complete expanse here: everything is white from the salt, as if covered with snow, there are unusually shaped crystals and some kind of alien landscapes.

By the way, there is even local history, that at the sanatorium there was once a museum of “Abandoned Crutches”: people came on crutches, and after a month or two of treatment they went home, leaving their crutches at the resort as unnecessary.

Baskunchak - All-Russian salt shaker

The second contender for the title of the saltiest lake in Russia is Baskunchak. It is located near Elton, in the Akhtubinsky district of the Astrakhan region. The salinity of Baskunchak water is approximately 370 ppm. The reservoir is called the “All-Russian salt shaker”, because it is here that 80% of all the country’s salt is mined.


The salts of the lake are very pure (up to 99.8%), surprisingly, many tourists use salt from the shore directly into their food. This is a significant difference between Baskunchak and the previous lake: Elton’s salts contain various impurities and are not entirely suitable for the food industry. And in Baskunchak there is the purest sodium chloride. True, thanks to additional minerals, Elton’s waters are much healthier and have better healing properties, but there is also a sanatorium on the banks of Baskunchak.


The depth of salt in Baskunchak is 6 kilometers, and it is practically inexhaustible: the fact is that a huge number of springs flow into the lake, which replenish the reserves of the reservoir every day by about 2.5 thousand tons. They began to extract salt from the lake back in the 8th century and sent it along the Great Silk Road.

There are about 5 million lakes in the world, but we have only heard about a few of the largest ones. Do you think that Baikal is the most big lake in the world? In fact, Baikal occupies only 7th place in the ranking of the largest lakes!

Did you know that the area of ​​the largest lake on the planet is equal to the area of ​​52 million football fields and is comparable to the area of ​​Moscow multiplied by 150 times? No? Then read below!

No. 10. Great Slave Lake - 28,930 square kilometers. North America.

Great Slave Lake is the 10th largest lake in the world in terms of area, and it is also the most deep lake V North America. Its depth is 614 meters. The dimensions of Great Slave Lake are 480 km long, 19-109 km wide, and an area of ​​28,930 square kilometers.

From October to June the lake is frozen; in winter the ice can support the weight of trucks. Rivers flowing into the lake: Hay, Slave, Snowdrift, etc. The Mackenzie River flows out of the lake. The origin of the lake is glacial-tectonic.





No. 9. Lake Nyasa - 30,044 square kilometers. East Africa.

Lake Nyasa (Malawi) is the ninth largest lake in the world by area. Lake Nyasa fills a crack in the earth's crust in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa, located between Mozambique and Tanzania. The length of the lake is 560 km, depth - 706 m. Nyasa contains 7% of the world's reserves of liquid fresh water.

Nyasa is known for its rich ecosystem, many of the species found in the lake are endemic. The origin of the lake is tectonic.





No. 8. Great Bear Lake - 31,080 square kilometers. Canada.

Great Bear Lake is located 200 km south of the Arctic Circle in Canada. The lake ranks eighth in area in the world and fourth in North America. Dimensions of the lake: length - 320 km, width - 175 km, maximum depth- 446 m.

The lake has not much good story. Uranium was found here. It was from here that uranium was mined to make the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The lake is almost always covered with ice; the ice rarely melts before the end of July. The origin of the lake is glacial-tectonic.





No. 7. Lake Baikal - 31,500 square kilometers. Eastern Siberia.

Baikal is the deepest lake in the world, the largest water reservoir, which contains 20% of the world's liquid fresh water reserves. Baikal is also considered one of the cleanest lakes in the world.

The lake ranks seventh in area in the world and first in volume. Dimensions of the lake: length - 636 km, width - 80 km, maximum depth - 1642 m, volume - 23,600 km3.
The origin of the lake is tectonic, its age is more than 25 million years. The fauna of Lake Baikal is one of the most unique in the world; many species are endemic.

No. 6. Lake Tanganyika - 32,893 square kilometers. Central Africa.

Lake Tanganyika is one of the most deep lakes in the world, along with Lake Baikal. The lake lies between 4 countries - the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Zambia and Burundi.

Dimensions of the lake: length - 676 ​​km, width - 72 km, maximum depth - 1470 m, volume - 18,900 km3. The origin of the lake is tectonic.

Tanganyika lies in Africa's deepest tectonic basin and is part of the Congo River basin, one of the largest rivers in the world.





No. 5. Lake Michigan - 58,016 square kilometers. North America.

Lake Michigan is one of the Great Lakes. This lake is the largest lake located entirely within the United States. Michigan is the fifth largest in the world and the third largest among the Great Lakes. The volume of the lake is 4918 m3, length - 494 km, width - 190 km, maximum depth - 281 m. The origin of the lake is glacial-tectonic.





No. 4. Lake Huron - 59,596 square kilometers. North America.

Lake Huron is one of the Great Lakes. This lake is located on the territory of two countries: the USA and Canada. Huron is the fourth largest lake in the world. The volume of the lake is 3538 m3, length - 331 km, width - 295 km, maximum depth - 229 m. The origin of the lake is glacial-tectonic.




No. 3. Lake Victoria - 69,485 square kilometers. East Africa.

Lake Victoria is located in Tanzania and Kenya. With the construction of the Owen Falls Dam in 1954, the lake was converted into a reservoir. There are many islands on the lake. Fishing is developed on the lake and there are many ports in three countries. A national park has been established on the island of Rubondo (Tanzania).

Victoria is the third largest lake in the world. The volume of the lake is 2760 m3, length - 320 km, width - 274 km, maximum depth - 80 m. The origin of the lake is tectonic.

The lake was discovered and named in honor of Queen Victoria by British traveler John Henning Speke in 1858.

No. 2. Lake Superior - 82,414 square kilometers. North America.

Lake Superior is the second largest in the world and the largest among the Great Lakes, located on the border of the United States and Canada. The volume of the lake is 12,000 m3, length - 563 km, width - 257 km, maximum depth - 406 m. The origin of the lake is glacial-tectonic.

Etymology of the name. In the Ojibwe language, the lake is called Gichigami, which means “big water.”





No. 1. Caspian Sea - 371,000 square kilometers. Europe Asia.

The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth, which is classified as the largest lake or sea due to its size. Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia. Volume - 78,200 m3, length - 1200 km, width - 435 km, maximum depth - 1025 m. Length coastline The Caspian Sea is approximately 6500 kilometers.

130 rivers flow into the Caspian Sea, the largest of them are the Volga, Terek, Sulak, Ural, Kura, Artek, etc. The Caspian Sea washes the shores of Kazakhstan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Russia, and Azerbaijan.
The origin of the lake is oceanic.