Where I was. Lake Elton. Salt lake elton Salt of lake elton how to prepare a solution

Elton is the largest salt lake in Europe. It is located on the border of Russia and Kazakhstan in the Volgograd region (Pallasovsky district). Covers an area of ​​180 sq. km. It has the shape of an almost even circle. Despite the fact that it is quite large, its average depth is several centimeters. Really very small. 7 salty rivers flow into Lake Elton. There are 2 fresh keys.

See where Lake Elton is located on the map.

There are two theories about the origin of the name. In Kazakh "Altyn-Nur" means "gold mine". And since the red color of the water in July casts gold, it turns out so. According to the second version, the name of the lake began in 1741, when the governor of Astrakhan Tatishchev brought an Englishman to the lake - engineer John Elton, who explored the reservoir, described it, mapped it and immortalized his name. But the Polovtsian khans considered these lands sacred. The Kazakhs still believe in a pagan legend that says that Tengri Khan, the lord of heaven, sometimes descends into the waters of the lake to prolong his eternal youth.

What is the uniqueness of the lake?

Its uniqueness is amazing. Firstly, the area around the lake is an excellent balneological resort, since the concentration of salt in the lake (brines) is 1.5 times higher than in the Dead Sea. But concentrated saline is habitable. Halobia live here - super-survivable microorganisms. Dunaliella brackish algae also grow here, thanks to which the water has an unusual pinkish tint. Even satellite photographs of Lake Elton capture a pinkish color off the coast.

The royal family once rested here. Excellent conditions for recovery. There is a legend that once there was a "Museum of Abandoned Crutches", because people who arrived with disabilities were cured and left the crutches they no longer needed.

Besides the fact that the lake is good for health, it is incredibly beautiful. The eastern side is most suitable for rest, swimming and admiring the beauties of the lake. It is especially beautiful in these places at the end of April, when the steppe blooms and millions of tulips with emerald green expanses are simply mesmerizing. The lake itself is surrounded by salt crystals resembling snow flakes. Sometimes there are different forms of education. Under the salt is the famous therapeutic mud.

Lake Elton - a miracle of nature in our Russian expanses - is the topic of today's article.

Lakes are different: large and small, forest, mountain and steppe. And the lakes are salty.

Not far from the city of Volgograd is Europe's largest salt lake Elton - a real miracle of nature, a unique property of the Volga steppe.
Unusual places in the world always attract increased attention. And this pond is no exception. The water in the lake is a thick solution of mineral salts. This solution is called brine. It is not transparent, like water, but a reddish hue.

On a bright sunny day, the water in the lake looks pink, and at sunset the lake looks golden. In the language of the locals, the lake is called Altan-Nor (“Golden Bottom”).

Dazzling white salty beaches sparkle in the sun along the shores, very similar to snow.


Salt is present everywhere.

It is felt on the skin, in the hair. Its crystals are visible in the cracks of the earth and even the wind has a salty taste.

Even in the photograph taken from the Sputnik, the reservoir appears pink.

In 1741, the lake began to be called Eltonsky in honor of its first explorer, an English sea captain. The Englishman Elton described in detail that the area of ​​the lake is 152 sq. km, which feed it several fresh springs and eight rivers with bitter-salty water.
Salt lakes are usually shallow, so that the depth of a huge lake is only ten centimeters. And only in spring, when meltwater flows into the lake, the level of brine in it rises, in some places reaching eighty centimeters.
The bottom of Elton is a crust of salt with prickly outgrowths, fragile as glass. Water washes more and more new layers, one per year. The layer between them is black silty and oily mud, saturated with minerals and useful salts. Layers of salt under the lake go deep into the earth for several kilometers. Its stock is estimated at billions of tons.
From the middle of the seventeenth century, salt from the lake was mined for sale. For almost a hundred and twenty years, these works were financed from the treasury. But by 1882, salt mining on Elton had died out and the healing properties of the local land and water came to the fore.

Even the ancient nomads knew about the healing properties of Elton mud and salt. The treatment looked like this: a crust of salt was punched near the shore. The patient was placed in the resulting hole, as in a bath, and after an hour they took out and washed off the dirt with a brine from the lake. All ailments, they say, were taken away by hand.
Elton mud does not need to be processed at all. Nature itself prepared it for therapeutic baths and compresses. The mineral mud of the lake in its healing properties is not inferior to the famous Dead Sea mud. The steppe hot climate is also favorable for treatment. The air above the lake is very clean, the wind is saturated with the smallest particles of medicinal salts, and in the morning and evening there is never dew. This is very important for people who catch cold easily.
All this led to the fact that already at the beginning of the twentieth century, a mud bath was created on Elton, which was considered a very prestigious and expensive resort. Members of the royal family and other Russian nobility came here for treatment. Until now, diseases of the joints and the musculoskeletal system have been successfully treated here.
Now the territory adjacent to the lake is one of the three national parks located in the Volgograd region. Here, among the steppes and semi-deserts, you can see real sand dunes and fancy salt mountains. You can taste the bitter water from the mineral river, admire the red-purple grass and take pictures of strange landscapes, more like the scenery of science fiction films about other planets.

And also: due to the fact that in a vast space, on the surface of the earth there is water, and the thinnest layer. It reflects the sky in an unusually beautiful way. Considered by photographers as one of the most beautiful places. Photos there are obtained as if a person is soaring in the sky!

Sochi astrotour club "Orion" invites astrophotographers, travel photographers and just lovers of unusual places and nature on an astrophoto expedition to this incredible lake.
Purpose: photographing night and day landscapes, exchange of experience, communication.
Venue: Lake Elton. (Volgograd region)

If there are three people who want to take part in the event, we will leave Sochi by car.
Date of arrival in Sochi: May 3.

Plan:
We reach the village of Elton, meet with participants from other cities. On the spot we park the car in the parking lot of the sanatorium or we agree with one of the local residents about parking the car at his house for money and under protection, then we follow the hiking method to the venue of the event, the distance will not be very long and it will not be difficult to walk it with backpacks .
Accommodation on the shore of the salt lake Elton: camping-field way.

What you need to have: warm clothes, sleeping bag, gas burner, backpack. soft canister.
Back to Sochi, also on foot to the car, and on it the transfer to Sochi.
It is also necessary to have a border zone passport with you.

On the way, you will have to stop for the night in the Rostov region (camping or motel)
Departure date from Sochi: 23 April.
Date of arrival in Sochi: May 3.

What the participant receives: transfer by car in both directions, use of a gas burner, campfire equipment. Teaching astro and landscape photography. Tent-place, double karimat.
Not included: sleeping bag (tour equipment can be rented or ski overalls can be used. I can give one sleeping bag t -6g free of charge), accommodation in intermediate motels or camping (Rostov region and Elton village).
Meals: self-cooking on a gas burner.
Yura Zvezdny's report on the location.

Lake Elton- salty drainless self-sustaining lake in the north of the Caspian lowland. Administratively located on the territory of the Eltonsky rural settlement in the Pallasovsky district of the Volgograd region, not far from the border with Kazakhstan.

The largest lake in the Volgograd region and the largest mineral lake in Europe (one of the most mineralized in the world). It plays an important role as a stopping place during the autumn migration of migratory birds, especially waders and cranes.

A kind of symbol of Elton are Gesner (Schrenk) tulips - large red tulips that bloom by the end of April. They can be seen only in hard-to-reach places of the Volgograd region. Flowers are listed in the Red Book.

Boundless, like the sea itself, it remains absolutely calm even in a strong wind. As if this is not a lake, but a huge piece of a polished precious stone of an unearthly raspberry-golden color. And during the famous Elton sunset, it seems like a bowl of molten gold.

This amazingly beautiful lake is surrounded by a white, like a snow ring of salt sparkling in the sun, which also pleasantly resembles snow flakes to the touch. It is difficult to find a place that could compare with Elton in terms of beauty and variety of landscapes.

Tatars, Kalmyks and Kazakhs call the lake Elton Altan - nor (Altyn - Nur), which translates as "Golden bottom" or "golden lake". It is not named so by chance - for the beauty and iridescent play of color from red-hot gold to pale pink. However, there is a version that it is named after the English navigator Elton, who was invited in 1741 by the Astrakhan governor Tatishchev to explore the lake.

Several fresh springs and 7 mineral rivers with bitter-salty water flow into it, of which the largest is char, up to 40 km long (from the north-west), and small ones: two currants, saltwort, lancut, blackberry, quarantine. These rivers carry water to the lake throughout the year, but most of all in spring.

Even from space, Elton looks pinkish. Scientists for a long time could not understand the source of such an unusual color, until at the end of the 19th century. did not discover the presence in the water of the smallest microorganisms that survive in a thick oily brine and in which all living things instantly die.

History of Lake Elton

Lake Elton was known long before it became a popular resort. Already in the time of Ivan the Terrible, after he conquered the Astrakhan Khanate, regular salt mining began in the salt lakes of those places. At that time, the fame of the Astrakhan salt lakes was so great that it gave rise to fantastic stories about their inexhaustibility and high quality of salt. The most active development of salt was taken up during the time of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna. During these years, two salt paths were laid from Lake Elton to Nikolaevskaya Sloboda and to Pokrovskaya Sloboda, through which salt flowed to the Russian provinces.

On February 27, 1747, the Governing Senate issued a decree on the establishment of a salt mining commission on Lake Elton.

Since 1865, state salt mining was stopped and handed over to private entrepreneurs. Most of them rushed to the Elton and Baskunchak lakes. Due to heavy loads and unplanned developments that lasted more than a century, salt mining was stopped there in the late 1880s. Approximately from this time, you can start counting the resort destination of the lake.

Geology and climate of Lake Elton

It is a depression between large salt domes in the far north of the Caspian lowland.

• The area is 152 km², the shape is close to a circle.
• Depth - 5-7 cm in summer; up to 1.5 m in spring.
• The level is 15 meters below sea level. The highest point of the Elton region, Mount Ulagan (salt dome), is 68 m above sea level.
• Food is mainly snow, through 7 mineralized rivers. At the bottom there are outlets of salty springs.

The lake is filled with a saturated saline solution (brine), which freshens up in spring. Mineralization is 200-500 g/l, which is 1.5 times higher than the concentration in the Dead Sea. The water contains Dunaliella salina algae, which give the lake a reddish tint. At the bottom of the lake there are deposits of salts (mainly NaCl, KCl) and under them a layer of mineral hydrogen sulfide mud.

The climate is sharply continental, arid: hot summers (average July temperature 25 °C), moderately cold winters (average January temperature −11 °C); rainfall is about 300 mm per year; constant winds throughout the year.

Until 1882, salt was mined on the Elton, in 1910 the medical sanatorium "Elton" was founded on its shore (moved to a new location in 1945). In 2001, the lake and the surrounding areas of virgin steppes (106 thousand hectares) became part of the State Institution "Natural Park" Elton "".

Legends of Lake Elton

There is still a legend among the Kazakhs, according to which the heavenly lord of Tengri - Khan descends into the waters of Lake Elton to prolong eternal youth. Another legend that has survived to this day tells that the Tatar-Mongol Khan Mamai, having been defeated in the sandpiper field and returning to the golden horde, hid gold and jewelry in the waters of Lake Elton. Over time, they were corroded by salt, and because of this, the water in the lake acquired a golden hue. There is a folk legend associated with the activities of the Elton sanatorium, which was founded in 1910 and was located on the lake itself, and in 1945 moved to the village of the same name.

They say that at the sanatorium there was a museum of abandoned crutches. People came on crutches and after a month or two returned home, leaving the crutches in the sanatorium. After some time, they accumulated so much that it was decided to get rid of the museum. One of the residents of the village took the crutches and made a fence around his garden out of them.

Elton to this day is a balneological resort, which has no analogues in all of Russia. Now diseases of the musculoskeletal system and connective tissue, skin, nervous system, respiratory organs, genitourinary system, digestive organs, consequences of injuries, metabolic disorders are successfully treated here. However, not only mud, brine and mineral water treat here. Nature itself heals here - calm, unhurried, pacifying.

Lake Elton has been known since ancient times, even then people were well aware of its healing properties and regularly used the services of a natural "doctor" in order to improve their health. At the beginning of the 20th century, a sanatorium was founded here. This is a huge salt lake, comparable only to the Israeli Dead Sea, surrounded by natural landscapes of the desert steppe. Silt mud, brine and mineral drinking springs are valuable healing resources.

Where is Lake Elton

This is the eastern part, located almost on the border with Kazakhstan, in the Volga steppes. The depth of the lake is quite small, in summer - no more than 7 cm, in spring it can reach up to several meters. The area is 152 sq. m. A large circle of mirror surface, to which you need to walk several meters along the dried salty crust. The required level of the lake supports 7 rivers. At the bottom there are outlets of salty springs. The lake is located 18 meters below sea level.

It is not suitable for bathing, as it is filled not with water, but with brine - an oily liquid, bitter-salty in taste. It is oversaturated with a solution of table salt, as well as macro- and microelements. Lake Elton is decorated with another attraction - Mount Ulagan, which is a constantly growing salt dome.

Another interesting feature of the reservoir is that the lake is not dead, algae live in the water, which give it a pink tint.

Climatic features of the region

If you are going to relax on Lake Elton or get medical treatment in a sanatorium, be sure to take sunscreen creams and oil with you. The sun is burning here, almost instantly burns both the face and other open areas of the body. The wind almost does not stop, so dark glasses will be a useful thing. They will solve two problems at once: they will protect from the bright sun and wind-blown dust. The temperature difference between day and night is very noticeable, so if you are going on a long excursion, stock up on warm clothes, it will come in handy if you return in the evening.

The heat here is hard to bear, so when leaving the hotel room, take a hat and a supply of drinking water with you. If you suffer from heart disease, then choose to travel in spring or autumn, when the weather is milder.

Today the resort operates 12 months a year, the average air temperature here in the winter months is -11 degrees.

For lovers of new experiences

The natural beauties here are specific, you need to get used to them, especially for a Russian person who likes the sound of the wind in the treetops and the singing of birds. Here you will not find either one or the other. As already mentioned, the surroundings are a bare steppe, in which a pinkish lake is located. Driving close by car is not recommended because of the salty mud in which the wheels slip, and a large amount of salt pretty much spoils metal and rubber. On a sunny day, eyes are blinded as if from snow, and only in the evening, when the sunset paints Lake Elton in magical red tints, you can appreciate the beauty of these places.

This is the real kingdom of salt. It frames the lake in the form of a wide variety of crystals. They resemble either snow flakes or bizarre snowflakes: with sharp needles, oval, cubic. Here it makes sense to walk around with a camera and look for a more interesting frame. Salt gets stuck in the hair, felt on the entire surface of the skin, settles on the lips... The smallest particles of it are constantly carried by the wind, which makes it seem that it is here that the air can be tasted.

Health Tourism

For this, there is a sanatorium on Lake Elton. It is located 6 km from the lake, so tourists receive all the procedures in the local mud bath. Thrill-seekers can take a hike to get the gifts of nature in a natural environment on their own, or take advantage of the daily tour. Twice a day, a bus leaves for the lake, which takes out those who want to take a "wild bath". The advantages of such a trip are that it is here that the high temperature works for you, and even the special air of these places. Then, covered with a salt crust, you have to drive back to take a shower.

For comparison: fresh mud from the lake is also brought to the sanatorium twice a day. It is applied to the body, after which the patient is wrapped in polyethylene and covered with a blanket. The procedure lasts 15-20 minutes, then you can take a shower (without a washcloth and soap). Next, in accordance with the instructions of the doctor, a sweating procedure is performed: the patient is wrapped in several blankets and given hot tea to drink.

Not only mud, but the “water” of the lake itself is also healing. Rapa is recommended for the treatment of many diseases, and the best effect can be achieved by alternating brine and mud baths. Your choice is to use the services of a sanatorium or the opportunity to plunge into the lake itself.

What is the therapeutic effect

Lake Elton is very popular among Russians. much closer to Israel, and even more effective treatment can be obtained, since the salt content exceeds 1.5 times their concentration in the Dead Sea water. Therapeutic mud causes irritation of skin receptors and blood vessels. Organic nitrogenous substances penetrate the skin into the bloodstream and affect the functioning of internal organs.

Mud is a natural source of vitamins, enzymes, hormone-like and other biologically active substances. The mud procedure as a whole affects the entire body, the nervous and endocrine systems.

Magic mud and brine

Hundreds of people undergo treatment at Lake Elton every year. The procedures bring significant relief, and subsequent therapy will give an even more tangible result. Therefore, in chronic diseases, people practice annual treatment in a local sanatorium.

High-salt silt, sulfide, bromine mud is a homogeneous, oily mass, a bit reminiscent of grease. It is also not easy to wash, it smells of hydrogen sulfide. The crust of dirt on the body retains heat well, which is a catalyst for starting recovery processes. Salt Lake Elton is famous for the chemical composition of the mud. It contains magnesium and sodium chloride, bromine, iodine, magnesium and calcium sulfate, calcium silicate, magnesium, aluminum. There is also iron sulfide, silicic acids, organic substances.

It is because of this amount of impurities that the Elton salt lake is no longer used for the extraction of edible salt. Thanks to this, it has retained its original appearance and today can be a place of healing for many people.

Rapa is an even more amazing substance. As you approach the lake, the salt crust begins to break under your feet and you sink into the mud. Having enjoyed these sensations enough, you can go further. Here, the crust already fully supports the weight of a person, and it is covered with an oily liquid in which undissolved salt crystals float. In the hot season, it is completely difficult to dive into the brine, the depth barely reaches 10 cm, but the concentration of salts is such that it begins to corrode the skin. More balanced brine baths will be offered to you in the sanatorium.

They include calcium chloride and magnesium, magnesium sulfide, calcium carbonate and calcium sulfate, organic substances, bromine and boron. During brine baths, the smallest salt crystals settle on the skin, which continue their therapeutic effect after the end of the procedure.

Benefits for your health

Rest on Lake Elton will be useful to everyone without exception. The eastern part of this mysterious reservoir is most suitable for swimming and enjoying the views. Treatment is prescribed according to medical indications, but it has a beneficial effect on the entire body. Metabolic processes are activated, hematopoiesis normalizes, immunity increases, the nervous system strengthens, the condition of the skin improves, working capacity increases, blood pressure normalizes.

Elton mud is similar to that which comes from the Dead Sea, and brine is 1.5 times higher than its waters in terms of the concentration of useful substances. Many note a pronounced bactericidal effect. The mud of Lake Elton is used in the form of general and local applications. They are used to treat diseases of the joints, bones and muscles, the central and peripheral nervous system, the gastrointestinal tract, and ENT organs. Diseases of the genitourinary system (both female and male) respond well to mud treatment. In addition, Lake Elton is a real panacea for patients suffering from chronic skin diseases.

Contraindications to the passage of mud therapy

Despite the wide range of indications and the undeniable benefits of Elton's wealth, consult your doctor before going to the lake. If you go to the official website of the resort, you can read rave reviews. Lake Elton easily conquers the hearts of people, but still there are contraindications for treatment that must be considered:

• Pregnancy.
• Any disease in the acute stage.
• Venereal diseases.
• All diseases of the blood in an acute form.
• Tuberculosis.
• Severe forms of hypertension.
• Any bleeding.
• Mental illness.
• Drug addiction and alcoholism.

If you should not use mud and brine baths today, this does not mean at all that you cannot visit Elton. The lake offers treatment in the form of the purest air, the famous mineral drinking spring, as well as nature itself - calm, unhurried, pacifying.

Road to Elton

You can get to Volgograd by train, car, fly by plane. Options - for every taste and budget. In the city, you can change to a bicycle or continue your journey by car. It is easy to get lost in the endless steppes, so it is better to stick to the already known route. One of these is the path from Volgograd through the village of Volzhsky and Leninsk, but a bad steppe road leads to the lake. The second route is longer, it goes through Volzhsky, Nikolaevsk, Pallasovka, but for almost the entire route it is an asphalt road. Feel free to take a trip to Lake Elton! Any local resident will tell you how to get there, even if you go astray.

Excursions in the natural park

One of the most popular services is the rental of bicycles, on which you can take a tour of the surroundings. There is something to see here. The tour usually starts from the lake itself. After listening to stories about miraculous healings, tourists head to Mount Ulagan. This dome is unique not only because it is made of salt, but its height fully corresponds to the depression of the lake. But that's not all! Here, rocks come to the surface, the history of which dates back to the Jurassic period, often with preserved samples of flora and fauna. Fossils of ancient mollusks can be found here on the surface, without excavation. This mountain is also interesting for its stunning views of the entire reserve.

If you are interested in geology, then you can visit the Grand Canyon, which is located next to Mount Ulagan. But usually the tour takes place around the lake. An interesting cultural monument is the abandoned village of salt miners, Old Elton, which is located on the western shore. Here you will be told about the hard work of the villagers, who had to get and load the precious goods, protect themselves from the raids of the nomads and deliver the salt unscathed through the difficult section of the steppe. An outpost was created here, which served as a fortress protecting people.

From here, the path runs north, along the bed of the Khara River. The places are enchanting, with a completely unusual landscape. Even the plants here are unusual, adapted to the salty soil and mineral water. Maybe that's why there are so many rare species of trees and herbs that are not found anywhere else. Surprisingly, a huge number of various species of ducks gather on this salty river, even common cranes fly here.

A mandatory attribute of the tour is a visit to the Devil's Bridge. It no longer exists, it existed at the time of active salt mining on the lake, almost 400 years ago. Now only the ruins of a stone dam have been preserved here. Further the route runs along the Khara riverbed to the Botanicheskaya beam. It will be of interest to connoisseurs and lovers of botany, but for an uninitiated tourist it is just bushes and herbs. About 400 species of plants grow here. Among them you can find trees - apple trees and buckthorn; shrubs - sloe, wild rose, blackberry. Interesting rare species located on the slopes. These are tulips and irises, almonds, asparagus, valerian, tansy, tarragon.

If you are lucky, you can take photos of insects listed in the Red Book. This is a long-legged kravchik, motley ascalaf.

A walk under the hot sun makes itself felt, and tourists move towards the long-awaited Smorogdinsky mineral spring. The composition of the water resembles the waters of the famous springs in Kislovodsk, although the taste may not be pleasant out of habit.

Here lovers of cultural recreation can leave their bicycles and take a trip to the ethnographic museum. It is unique in that it was created and maintained by one person, a history teacher. These are four buildings located side by side. The first tells about Russian life. This is a hut, cleaned according to all traditional canons. Nearby is a Kazakh yurt, demonstrating the life of the nomadic people. The second yurt is here, according to your order, a real dastarkhan is served with beshbarmak, baursaks and delicious tea. The fourth house is a museum of salt mining.

The tour is led by the creator of the museum, a historian who knows and loves his land. He will tell you everything you want to know about Lake Elton. - the real passion of this enthusiastic person.

A visit to the Elton Natural Park can be a real adventure, full of new experiences, and even a budget family vacation. Therapeutic baths will improve the state of health, normalize the nervous system. This place is ideal for spending time pleasantly and profitably.

Lake Elton (Volgograd region), spreading its salty shores on the territory of the Caspian lowland, is rightfully considered a natural curiosity of Russia. On the map, this is just a small blue spot on the border with Kazakhstan. In fact, a reservoir with an area of ​​just over 150 square meters. km. The reservoir is one of the largest salt lakes in Europe.

In contact with

Its healing potential is so high that it is fair comparison with the Dead Sea, having a salt concentration 1.5 times less than Elton. And, if we take into account the presence in the lake of deposits of hydrogen sulfide deposits and silt sulfide mud containing:

• iron salts,
• carbonic acid,
• amino acids,
• iodine impurities,

then its healing power will become clear.

The lake feeds mainly on snow reserves and the waters of seven mineralized rivers, and salt is born from the depths of underground deep sources. The favorable climate of the region and the absence of the need to conserve life-giving mud made it possible to use Elton's resorts all year round.

From Ivan the Terrible to the present day

However, all the charms of the reservoir were not noticed today. Already during the time of Ivan the Terrible salt was mined from its shores, which the enterprising merchants of Russia subsequently sold not only to their compatriots, but also sent to the tables of European sovereigns.

The special pink color of the mineral, obtained from the Dunaliella saline algae that lived on the bottom, added popularity, novelty and demand to the product. At the end of the 19th century, salt mining was suspended, and travelers, doctors, and climatologists began to visit the region more and more often to study the properties of salt crystals and their impact on humans. The scientists evaluated the advantages of the brine solution and the unique antioxidant tendencies of Dunaliella, which gave birth to a new line of production of cosmetics and dietary supplements.

Since that time, the commercial development of the territory and its improvement for a good rest begins. In 1910, the first resort was opened, and in the post-war years, a whole balneological complex. The map of the Caspian lowland near the lake is gradually overgrown with new settlements.

The healing power of salt water and relaxation by the lake

The rebuilt modern buildings and rooms for spa treatments gradually replaced the spontaneous mud pits, equipped by savage tourists. Lake salts have become the “carrot” that attracts many people today, suffering from various ailments, among which:

• diseases of the musculoskeletal system,
• diseases of the genitourinary system,
• nervous disorders,
• skin diseases,
• endocrine abnormalities.

In addition, therapeutic baths can strengthen the human immune system, improve metabolism, rejuvenate the body and simply create a good mood.

Is on the territory and own mineral spring, located 3 kilometers from the healing mud. Its popularity among vacationers is very high. Still would! After all, the chemical composition of its water is similar to the famous healing brand "Essentuki-17".

Holidays on Lake Elton in the Volgograd region will delight even the most skeptical people. After all, this is the place where the healing power comes together with the recreational component of the region. Numerous parks, picturesque streams, pink and white salt marshes, shallow lake waters, mysterious haze - this is not a complete list of the natural beauties of this region.

Elton and Baskunchak

Flora and fauna lovers will not be disappointed. Thus, the collection of birds nesting here exceeds 250 species, including various duck families, cranes, waders, bustards. If you're lucky, you can bring home great photos and videos! And how much joy a horseback ride through the surrounding steppes can bring, when the wind in your face and adrenaline plays in your veins!

You can come to Elton both with a one-day excursion and on your own for a few days. Prices for accommodation, treatments and horseback riding are moderate. After all, the resort area does not yet have the world fame of Hungarian baths or the same Lake Baskunchak, located just 103 km in a straight line from Elton. And, although Elton and Baskunchak are approximately equivalent in terms of healing properties, they are completely different in terms of the quality of bathing. You can enter Elton up to your ankles, no more, so as not to put yourself at risk of drowning in its sucking dense waters. In Baskunchak, it is really possible to swim on your back with a book in your hands, while also enjoying a cool novel.

Prices and tourist infrastructure

The cost of living in well-equipped sanatoriums in the Elton resort area will be from 1700 rubles per day per person. Rented housing in the private sector in a 7-kilometer strip from the lake can be found even at a lower price. This does not require the help of aggregator sites at all. Everything can be done upon arrival in the village. Local residents will be happy to offer hospitality by offering an apartment or even a whole house with a bicycle in addition - it is cheaper and more convenient to get to the healing brine with it.

The tourist infrastructure on Elton, as well as throughout the Volgograd region, has received a boost, and is now developing every season. Here you will find cozy hotel rooms, various catering points, equipped sports grounds, modern shops, beach equipment rentals, and a developed network of main and secondary roads for transport crossings. So it's easy to get to your destination both from Volgograd and points of the region, and from Kamyshin, Saratov and Astrakhan by your car or by taxi-minivan. Travel time is about 6 hours.

In addition, through the village of Elton, located on the eastern shore of the lake, railroad tracks and sidings. Traveling by train will be an interesting prelude to an excursion to magical healing waters.

This is such a gorgeous point on the map of Russia! Soon it will be appreciated by the rest of the world.