Bolshoye Yarovoye Lake

Bolshoye Yarovoye is a bitter-salt closed lake in the west of Altai Krai — the very water on whose shore the town of Yarovoye grew. The hydronym comes from 'yar': a high steep bank, a bluff undercut by water. Like all closed lakes of the Kulunda, Yarovoye accumulates salt: the water is brine, a saturated salt solution, with salt marshes and healing muds along the shores. In summer the water warms and holds a bather almost like the Dead Sea; around stretches flat steppe open to every wind. The place lives by its tourist season: sanatoria and bases on the shore host those who come for the brine and mud, and sunsets over the salt water have become a local brand. Deep in the night the steppe sky shows a scattering of stars without light pollution.