Lake Itkul

Itkul is the largest lake of northern Chelyabinsk Oblast: 30.1 square kilometres with depths up to 16.6 metres. It belongs to the Sinara group of tectonic lakes — its basin, like those of its group-mates, owes its existence to crustal faults rather than a glacier; the water is noticeably cleaner and colder than in lowland water bodies. On the north-west lies the Kamennaya Gryada island, and in the south the Shaytan-kamen rock rises above the water. The Dolgaya, Zyuzelka, Karabayka and Kamenushka rivers flow in, while the Istok river links Itkul with Lake Sinara. Since the 1980s the lake has been protected as a hydrological nature monument, its boundaries fixed in the Red Book of Chelyabinsk Oblast. The lake's modern history is special: nearby is Snezhinsk, a closed nuclear city, and it is from Itkul's shores that a limited water intake feeds the Russian Federal Nuclear Center — up to 3.2 million cubic metres a year. The nearest open access points are the villages of Dautovo and Itkul, twenty kilometres east of Verkhny Ufaley.