Kulunda Lake

Kulunda is the largest of Altai Krai's lakes: 728 square kilometres of water, about thirty-five kilometres across, ninety-nine metres above sea level. The lake is shallow — two and a half to three metres on average — with brackish, snow-fed water. All around lies the typical steppe of the Kulunda Plain. The eastern part is cut by islands and bays, the western is even, with many sandy shallows of recreational value: locals come here to swim and sunbathe as if at the sea. For the traveller the lake is space and wind: horizons along which the road runs, birds over the reeds and the feeling that the steppe never ends. Infrastructure is sparse — which is the point: people come here for the silence.