Kolyvanskoye Lake

Kolyvanskoye (Savvushka) lake lies on the border of the Pre-Altai plain and the northern slope of the Kolyvan Range, in the Zmeinogorsky district; the nearest village is Savvushka. The lake stretches four kilometres north to south at up to two and a half wide, stands at 336 metres and is shallow — a little over two metres on average. The banks are low, in places overgrown with shrubs, and above them rise the whimsical weathered forms of the shore cliffs — Kolyvan's signature. The Kolyvanka flows in from the east, the Pochtovy brook from the west, and the Ust-Kolyvanka flows out to the north: the lake is through-flowing, its water hydrocarbonate, its bottom silty. The lake grows the water caltrop — a relict left from Siberia's ancient flora that predates the Quaternary glaciations; crucian carp, roach, dace and perch live here. The Russian geologist Shchurovsky, who saw these places in the nineteenth century, left rapturous descriptions; today the lake is the summer holiday centre of the krai's south-west, with holiday bases and beaches.