Lake Bolshoy Kisegach

Bolshoy Kisegach lies five kilometres north-west of Chebarkul: 14.2 square kilometres of surface and depths up to 34 metres with water clarity reaching ten metres. The tectonic basin is funnel-shaped — a rare form for the Urals, which is why bottom water is 10–13 degrees colder than the surface even in summer. The lake holds eleven islands — Bolshoy, Vysoky, Sedlovaty, Lipovy, Sosnovyenky, Kopyoshka and others; small rivers flow in from the west, a channel comes from Terenkul in the south, and the Istok river flows out in the north towards Maly Kisegach. The name is traced to the Bashkir 'kise' (to cut) and 'agas' (wood) — 'the lake where the forest was cut', though another reading points to the 'steep' shores. The lake is protected as a nature monument and its territory is declared a resort: since 1926 the Kisegach sanatorium has operated on the southern shore with sapropel mud and mineral waters. The western shore borders the Ilmensky State Reserve, the oldest reserve of the Urals.