Isetskoye Lake

Isetskoye Lake lies 25 kilometres north-west of Yekaterinburg and gives rise to the Iset river. It is a shallow water body — the average depth is about 2.5 metres, the maximum 3.5 — stretching eight kilometres among wooded hills. On the water are the small islands of Solovetsky, Krasnenky and Kamenny. The shores have been inhabited for millennia: archaeologists count more than a dozen sites from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. The most mysterious page is the rock art on one of the islands: ancient images painted in ochre ended up flooded after the water level rose — today only divers can see them. The lake's modern look is the work of a dam at the source of the Iset: an earthen one was started in 1850, replaced by a concrete dam in 1946, and the water level rose. The water feeds the Sredneuralskaya GRES power plant, and since 2001 the shores have been protected as a landscape reserve of 4,738 hectares. Today it is Yekaterinburg's nearest 'big' lake: the town of Sredneuralsk, the settlements of Iset and Koptyaki, sandy beaches of the Lebyazhy and Tyoply bays, a sailing school and fishing — from perch to zander.