There are many attractions in Crimea. The most famous of them are: Grand Canyon, Mount Ai-Petri and Swallow's Nest. However, there are other very interesting, but, unfortunately, little-known places on this peninsula. The Pink Lake belongs to the category of such attractions. In Crimea, it is the saltiest.
Where is it located?
This interesting object for visiting tourists is located on the territory of Cape Opuk, about 30 km from Kerch. Once upon a time there was a military training ground in this place. But not so long ago, the Opuksky nature reserve was created here. The area of \u200b\u200bthis reserve is not too large. But at the same time, just a huge number of various kinds of rare birds live on its territory. Opuk was removed from the command of the military training ground in 1998. At the moment, it includes not only this cape itself, but also part of the coastal territory, as well as outliers standing in the sea, called "Rocks-Ships" for their unusual shape.
The very Pink Lake in Crimea is located on Opuk in close proximity to the Black Sea. This reservoir is separated from it only by a not too wide sandy embankment.
A bit of history
History ( bcnjhbz) near the Pink Lake in Crimea is quite interesting. It belongs to the volcanic group. That is, it was formed a very, very long time ago. In fact, even today its bottom is a dormant volcano. Not so long ago, Pink Lake was part of the Black Sea. However, later the surf brought a lot of sand here. Because of this, a bulkhead was formed.
Short description
So, where the Pink Lake is located in the Crimea, we found out. It is located near Kerch. Its official name is Koyashskoe. This unusual reservoir is quite large in size. Its total area is about 5 hectares. The lake reaches 4 km in length and 2 km in width. You will not be able to swim in this reservoir. Its depth in the spring reaches only 1 meter. By autumn, the lake dries up altogether. This body of water is actually very salty. Therefore, practically no living creatures are found in it. The salt concentration in it reaches 350 grams per liter. This is definitely a lot. Koyashskoe is the saltiest body of water on the Crimean peninsula.
The mud in this lake is curative. They are mined and delivered for the treatment of vacationers in local sanatoriums. You will not be able to swim in this lake. However, mud can be smeared on the shore. There is enough water to wash them off.
Why pink?
The main feature of this reservoir, which attracts tourists to it, is, of course, not a shallow depth or high salt content. The lake was called pink, of course, not in vain. The water in it really has such a shade. This reservoir looks especially beautiful at sunset. Actually, the very name Koyashskoe is translated as "the lake in which the sun is hiding."
In spring, the water in this reservoir has an ugly brownish-brown dirty color. However, already in June, with an increase in air temperature, its shade begins to change rapidly. This is due primarily to the vital activity of algae that multiply in the lake. Dunaliella Salina.The beta-carotene it produces gives the water a delicate, juicy pink hue.
When is the best time to go?
In spring, the water in Lake Koyashskoye is not very beautiful. But you can admire the surroundings of this reservoir in April-May. At this time, a huge number of tulips are blooming along the shores of the lake. They cover the local hills with almost a carpet.
In order toappreciate the beautymostPink lake in Crimea, it is worth coming here in mid - late summer. It is during this period that algae develop most actively, and the water actually acquires a beautiful shade.
Closer to autumn, the lake, as already mentioned, dries up. But even at this time it looks quite impressive. The fact is that the beta-carotene contained in its water turns pink and salt.
Later, in the fall, because of the rains, the lake again begins to collect water. Its layer at this time of the year in its bowl is not too large - about 2 cm. But because of it, the lake looks like a huge clean mirror. Tourists walking at this time of the year on the reservoir feel like they are floating in the air because of the reflected clouds.
How to get to the Pink Lake in Crimea?
Drive to this unusual natural site on the peninsula you can take the Feodosiya - Kerch highway. On the sign "Marfovo-Maryevka"before reaching about 20 km to the city,you need to turn towards the Black Sea. The road will not go on too good. You should be prepared for this. Having reached the village of Maryevka, you need to turn right towards the coast onto a country road. It may not be possible to drive through it in a regular car, since it is heavily pitted. You will most likely have to walk some part of the way. But get to the cape by jeepOpuk will work without problems.
Opuksky nature reserve
Where is the Pink Lake in Crimea located specifically - understandably. But you shouldn't go on an excursion to him spontaneously.Illegal entry into the reserveat Cape Opukprohibited. In order to get to the reserve, you needfirstget a pass, after submitting an application to his administration. Hereshould indicate the purpose of the visit, the number of people wishing to see the cape and their age.You don't need to travel anywhere to apply. To do thisyou can, for example, via the Internet. The reserve has its own group "VKontakte".
Other Pink lakes of Crimea
Koyashskoye looks really beautiful. However, in Crimea there are also other salt lakes of the same pleasant color. In this case, the effect is caused by the same alga. For example, lakes such as Krasnoi and Staraye have a pink tint on the peninsula.
Both reservoirs are located on the territoryKrasnoperekopsky City Council in the west of the peninsula. These lakes also look very impressive.
Senegal, located in West Africa, is famous for the extraordinary Pink Lake, with its color reminiscent of a strawberry cocktail. Lake Retba is an amazing natural phenomenon, unique in its kind, with a truly rich pink color. It is this fact that made it one of the main attractions of Senegal. What is the secret of this miracle of nature, why does the lake have such a color, and what life stories are associated with it?
In fact, everything is quite simple, the water in Retba Lake is salty to such an extent that it is suitable for the life of only one type of microorganism, which, in turn, gives a color that ranges from pale pink to brown. The salt concentration here is many times higher than the value in the Dead Sea. The intensity of the color varies with the time of day, namely the angle of incidence of the sun's rays, as well as the weather. During drought, pink is most pronounced.
Pink Lake is located near the Atlantic coast, 30 km from the capital of Senegal - Dakar. Retba's area is 3 square kilometers.
There is a whole village on the shore of the lake, and locals spend whole days taking salt from the bottom of the lake and pouring it into boats. This work is very hard, but the pay for it is not bad either.
Previously, Retba Lake was not a lake at all, once upon a time it was a lagoon. But year after year, the Atlantic surf brought sand, which subsequently caused the disappearance of the channel connecting the lagoon with the ocean. For many years the lake was unremarkable. But in the 70s, a severe drought happened in Senegal, Retba was crushed, and the extraction of salt, which lay in a large layer at the bottom, became quite a profitable business.
It is nowadays that people mine salt in the lake, standing up to their shoulders in water, but about 20 years ago there was so little of it that it was possible to walk. By extracting a huge amount of salt from the bottom of the Pink Lake, people very quickly make it deeper. In some places, the bottom level dropped by three or more meters.
Video: AROUND THE WORLD: Pink Lake Retba
Why is the water pink?
This question comes to mind first of all, it is asked by almost every traveler who has visited this anomalous place. But the answer has not yet been found. Unlike other colored lakes in the world, such as Retba in Senegal and salt lakes in San Francisco Bay, the origin of Lake Hillier's pink color has not been unequivocally proven.
At first, the color was thought to be the result of a paint created by the organisms Dunaliella and Halobacteria living in salt water. Another hypothesis is that the pink color is due to the red halophilic bacteria. It was assumed that the reason for the pink color of the water lies in a combination of a certain salinity of water and specific microorganisms. But tests carried out in 1950 did not confirm these assumptions. In subsequent years, a number of studies were also carried out, but the mystery of Lake Hillier remained unsolved, seriously agitating the minds of scientists.
Lake location
Lake Hillier is located on the very edge of the Middle Island, only a small strip of eucalyptus trees separates it from the ocean, surrounding the reservoir on all sides. Evergreen trees give the landscape a great contrast, especially when set against a pink lake.
As for the size of the lake, it cannot be said that it is large. Its width is about 600 meters. Due to its oval shape, the lake is often compared to a fabulous cake with a delicious pink icing.
History of the Pink Lake
The first mention of Lake Hillier dates back to 1802. British navigator and hydrographer Matthew Flinders stopped at Middle Island and noticed an unusual lake on his way to Sydney.
In 1820-1840, seal hunters and whalers stayed on the island, and at the beginning of the 20th century, salt was mined from the rose water. But the resource quickly dried up, and after 6 years the extraction of salt was stopped. Since then, the lake has not been used for industrial purposes.
Lake Hill Legend
This mysterious place has its own very beautiful legend that explains the pink color of the water. It is known to few sailors and rare travelers.
In the 17th century, in the waters around the island, the ship got into a severe storm and sank. The only surviving sailor was thrown into uninhabited lands. Struggle with the elements severely wounded him. Because of the broken limbs, every movement brought pain to the sailor, and the extraction of food became torture. After several weeks, distraught with pain, loneliness and despair, he exclaimed: "I will sell my soul to the devil if this nightmare ends!" Then a man emerged from the shadow of a nearby tree with two jugs in his hands: one contained blood, and the other contained milk. He walked slowly to the small inland lake of the island and said: “Blood will help you to forget what pain is. Milk will relieve you of hunger. You just have to plunge into these waters ”. After that, the stranger poured the contents of the jugs into the lake, which made it change color. The sailor, who thought that he had lost his mind, slowly went into the suspicious pink water and dived, and when he surfaced, the strange stranger was nowhere to be found. To the traveler's surprise, not a trace of fractures and hunger remained. Later, pirates landed on this island and captured the poor sailor. Later the filibusters were alarmed by the fact that the prisoner did not feel pain and did not need food. Considering this a bad sign, the superstitious pirates threw the sailor overboard, not believing in his mystical story of healing. By the way, the original name of the lake “Hiller” in pronunciation is absolutely consonant with the English word “Healer”, which is translated as “Healer”.
If you try to search the Internet for information or even more photos about Lake Retba in Senegal, and then want to see a photo of Lake Hillier in Australia, you will be surprised to find that half of the material about these lakes simply intersects. Ie, they write about one lake, and photographs of another, and vice versa. There you are one example ... This is not surprising, since both of these lakes are PINK.
Let's try to sort the information and photos by these lakes so as not to confuse them in the future.
Let's start with a lake in Senegal.
Lake Retba
In the language of the Wolof people, the main ethnic group of Senegal, the lake is called Retba. The water mirror with an area of \u200b\u200bthree square kilometers is located near the Cape Verde peninsula. And this reservoir looks like in a fairy tale about a milk river with jelly banks, only here it's the opposite: the water is pink, like cranberry jelly, but the banks are white, like milk or, more precisely, like salt. But let's start, as they say, from the very beginning.
Photo 1. 
Many years ago, the lake was a lagoon connected to the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow channel. Gradually, the ocean waves washed up the sand, which blocked the channel, and the lagoon turned into a salt lake, at first quite deep. However, in the 1970s, droughts began in Senegal, and the lake became very shallow. Now its greatest depth does not exceed three meters.
The water in Retba is really bright pink, and the reason for the unique color is that cyanobacteria live in the lake - the oldest microorganisms that appeared in the Earth's biosphere 3.5 billion years ago. But admiration is caused not only by their solid age. These bacteria are one of the few that can survive in the thick brine, which is the water of the Pink Lake. The salt concentration here is 380 grams per liter, that is, almost one and a half times higher than in the Dead Sea. Salt lies in a thick layer at the bottom of the lake, and thanks to this, the local population can live practically comfortably - according to African, of course, concepts.
Photo 2. 
Flat-bottomed boats were located along the entire coastline. This picture resembles the streets of our cities with cars parked on the sidewalk, but only each owner of the boat here has a historically assigned place for him, which no one dares to take. Boats here are not a luxury and, in general, not even a means of transportation. They are needed to extract salt. Every year, through joint efforts, people raise about twenty-five thousand tons of salt from the bottom, thereby deepening the lake. If earlier it was possible to wade it, now such walks, "like on dry land", are practically impossible.
Every morning here begins with local men leaving their homes and stretching towards the lake.
However, calling these buildings houses can only be a stretch. Yes, and shacks, too, are hardly worth calling them. These are kind of huts built from improvised means - reed stalks, car tires, plastic bags ... And visitors from neighboring countries (in our opinion, migrant workers) live in them. These people leave their native lands and rush to Senegal, because here, on the extraction of salt, you can earn about ten dollars a day - money, according to local concepts, is rather big, in their homeland - in Guinea, Mali, Gambia - they are talking about such a salary could not even dream. However, such happiness does not smile at them too long, because no one can stand it for more than three years - salt water gradually corrodes the skin, and a person becomes covered with painful ulcers.
Photo 3. 
So, early in the morning, migrant workers go to their punt, untie them and go out into the lake expanses. Moving away from the coast, they drop anchor and lubricate their skin with the so-called Chinese vegetable oil, which is extracted from the fruit of the sebaceous tree. If we neglect this simple procedure, then the concentrated saline solution splashing over the side of the boat will eat away the skin almost to the bones in just half an hour.
Jumping over the side of the boat, the miners first, with a special device, such as a scrap, loosen the salt that covers the bottom of the lake in a dense layer, and then fill the basket with it under water. The next step is to lift the basket and transfer its contents to the boat, after allowing the water to drain. The boat can hold up to 500 kilograms of salt. From the outside it seems surprising that a small boat with such a load does not sink. However, in order to flood a boat in the waters of the lake or drown yourself, you have to try very hard - the concentrated solution keeps both the loaded punt and the person afloat.
To earn the coveted ten dollars, an employee must deliver a boat filled with salt three times a day. By the way, it takes at least three hours for an experienced worker to load 500 kilograms of salt into a boat. Total: nine hours shoulder-length in brine ...
Photo 4. 
But then the miners bring the heavy punt to the shore, and then their wives and daughters get down to business. The task of women is to transfer salt from the boat to the pots, carry it a little further from the water and pour it there to dry. And a basin filled with salt, by the way, weighs at least 25 kilograms ...
After the salt has dried, pebbles and litter are taken out of it, and then poured into heaps, which make the coast of Retba look like an alien landscape. Salt can sit in such heaps for several years until a wholesale buyer is found. During this time, which initially had a gray color, it becomes dazzling white under the rays of the sun.
Photo 5. 
No Senegalese citizen would stoop to become a salt miner. This is hard and thankless work. Therefore, locals buy it in bulk and resell it to other African or European countries. And they also play the role of guides with pleasure, bringing tourists to an amazing lake with pink, like jelly, water and white milk, that is, salt, shores.
Photo 6. 
Lake Retba is located less than an hour's drive from the capital of Senegal (40 km), on the northwestern coast of Gran Cot, in close proximity to the shores of the Atlantic. The most convenient way to arrive here is as part of an organized excursion - this is a popular attraction, and joining the tour is not difficult.
If you want to arrive at the lake on your own, it makes sense to rent a car with a driver. The most unassuming tourists can use the minibus service. And if you want to stay here for a few days, there are a lot of hotels in the Gran Cot resort area at your service.
Photo 7. 
Retba is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by only a strip of low dunes, and the underground salt waters of the Atlantic generously feed this reservoir, from which there is no outflow of water. So, for thousands of years, the concentration of salt has been increasing here - and today Lake Retba in terms of salinity in the dry period from November to June easily “makes up” the untwisted Dead Sea: the salt content in water reaches 40%. By the way, the length of the lake is about 2 km, and the depth is no more than 3 meters.
The fantastic pink shade of the water is the result of the vital activity of a special kind of cyanobacteria that feed on salt. These bacteria produce a pink pigment in order to "attract" a certain spectrum of solar radiation necessary for their life. Well, then the pink pigment saturates the water in Retba and colors its surface with amazing shades.
Photo 8. 
The concentration of salt in Retba is so high that you cannot lie here with a book in your hands on the motionless surface of the lake - the mineral very soon begins to corrode the skin. As for the salt miners, they rub their bodies with shea butter, which prevents the insidious mineral from contacting the skin surface.
Photo 9. 
And on the other side of Retba, facing the Atlantic, there is a ridge of low graceful dunes. In short, the landscapes here are really mesmerizing: snow-white salt mountains, bright pink water surface and golden sand of the Green Peninsula of Senegal.
Photo 10. 
This lake is also often called Lac Rose .
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Rubbing their bodies with a special oil that protects against the damaging effects of incredibly salty water that corrodes the skin, salt miners spend the whole day at the lake. They dive to the bottom, blindly fill the baskets with salt, then unload it into a boat and take it to the shore. There, the catch is dumped into heaps, letting it dry, then washed and sorted out, clearing it of silt and sand. Burning out in the sun, the salt from the Pink Lake becomes snow-white - this is what they bring for sale.
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But few tourists who come to admire the amazing lake with "bloody" water dare to plunge into the colored depths of Lac Rose. They prefer to watch from the sidelines and take a lot of pictures.
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Now let's look at a more spectacular lake. Hillier (Lake Hillier) in Australia.
Photo 1. 
On the edge of the Middle Island is a mysterious pink lake surrounded by legends. From above, the shiny surface of pink Lake Hillier resembles the icing on an oblong brownie. This lake gives an unexpected shade to the wooded corner of the Middle Island. Middle Island is one of 100 small islands that make up the Exploration Archipelago, which stretches along the southern coast of Western Australia. The most mysterious natural attraction in Australia is Lake Hillier and its pink water.
Photo 2. 
A shallow salt lake, only 600 m wide. The white ribbon around it gives the lake an even greater impression of an unearthly landscape. The lake is surrounded on all sides by bright green eucalyptus trees, separated from the ocean only by a narrow strip of white sand dunes.
Until the middle of the 20th century, people, in explaining this phenomenon, were content with the assumption that special bacteria live in the water of the lake. In 1950, a group of scientists studied the pink color of the lake, hoping to find algae in the salt water of the lake - Red algae (Dunaliella salina). In very salty water, these algae produce a red pigment that turns other Australian lakes pink, such as on the mainland, near Esperance, a lake. The water sample taken from Lake Hillier did not find any traces of algae, so the color of the lake is still a mystery.
Photo 3. 
The first mention of the "pink" lake on the Middle Island dates back to 1802, when the British navigator and hydrographer Matthew Flinders stopped here on his way to Sydney, who became the discoverer of the pink lake.
Over the next several decades, the island was a kind of transit point for whalers, but at the beginning of the 20th century, the attention of visitors finally turned to the miracle of nature, albeit from a very materialistic point of view - salt mining began here. However, the business did not flourish for long. Even taking into account the use of special equipment instead of traditional manual labor, the profit was insufficient for business development, and the strange color of the water did not particularly attract the consumer. Six years later, the entrepreneurs scrapped the project, and since then Hiller has attracted only curious tourists and, occasionally, scientists.
Photo 4. 
In general, Lake Hillier is not the only pink lake, even in Australia, let alone bodies of similar color in other parts of the world. Almost all continents have their own pink lakes - here and Retba in Senegal, and Torrevieja in Spain, and the Canadian Dusty Lake, and Masazir in Azerbaijan, and Koyashskoye Lake in Crimea, and many others. But of all of them, Australia's Lake Hillier is the only one whose mystery has not yet been solved. After all, usually a pink color to water is given either by special algae, or cyanobacteria, or specific chemicals in the composition of the forming rocks. And what "paints" Lake Hillier in such a bright color? Scientists cannot yet answer this question. The results of studies carried out in 1950 showed the complete absence of any flowering microorganisms - both at the bottom of the reservoir and in the composition of the water.
Swimming in this wonderful lake, of course, is possible - but it happens at your own risk. After all, there are no resort baths, which are so common, for example, on the Dead Sea, there is not a trace here.
Photo 5. 
There was a local legend about a sailor who got to the island after a shipwreck. Exhausted and wounded, he offered the devil to sell his soul so that he could save him from this nightmare. At the same moment, a man appeared on the shore of the lake and poured a jug of blood and a jug of milk into it. Then he said: "Take a bath, and you will not feel hunger and pain." He did so, but acquired such strange abilities that the pirates who saved him, in the end, got scared and threw him back into the sea.
Let me remind you that studies of the lake water by scientists have not yielded any results. They did not find any bacteria or minerals capable of turning water pink.
The salt dissolved in the lake water can be used for food. Therefore, for some time there were salt developments. In addition to nutritional benefits, this salt also has medicinal properties, so there is still some truth in the legend about the sailor.
Photo 6. 
Lake Hillier is only 600 meters wide. On all sides, the reservoir is surrounded by tall bright green eucalyptus trees, which contrast sharply with the pink water of the lake. The lake is located at the very edge of the island, and only a narrow strip of land, consisting mainly of sand dunes, separates it from the ocean. From a bird's eye view, the lake looks the most impressive. The fact is that the shores of the lake are bordered with a thin layer of white salt, so from above it seems that the “pink spot” is as if framed!
Thousands of tourists come to the island every year. All of them want to see with their own eyes an unusual lake that looks so great against the background of evergreen eucalyptus trees!
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sources
http://tainy.info/world-around/rozovoe-ozero-retba/
http://tonkosti.ru/%D0%9E%D0%B7%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BE_%D0%A0%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B1%D0%B0
http://animalworld.com.ua/news/Neobychnoje-ozero-Retba-v-Senegale
Lake Retba (Retba) or Las Rose in Senegal is rightfully considered one of the most beautiful lakes of potassium permanganate color. Located to the north-east of Dakar, the capital of Sinegal. The lake got its name in honor of special algae. The pink color is especially evident during the dry season. In addition, Retba Lake is known for its high salt content, which, like the Dead Sea, makes it easy to float on its surface. The main source of income for local residents is salt mining on Retba Lake. Workers, forced to spend 6-7 hours in water containing about 40% salt, rub shea butter into their skin to prevent tissue damage.
Pink Lake Hillier in Australia
On the edge of the Middle Island, the largest island in the Recherche Archipelago in Western Australia, lies a fabulous pink lake surrounded by secrets and legends. Discovered a magical reservoir in 1812. A feature of Lake Hillier is its unusual, permanent, hot pink color. In the 50s of the twentieth century, scientists tried to find Red Algae, which turns lakes pink. The attempt was unsuccessful, so the color is still a mystery. The lake is only 600 meters long. A narrow strip of white sand, small deposits of white salt and dense eucalyptus forests separate the lake from the ocean.
Salt lake Torrevieja in Spain
Deep pink salt lakes - Torrevieja and La Mata - surround the seaside town in southern Spain. According to the World Health Organization, the area of \u200b\u200bthese lakes is the most favorable for the life and health of the population and tourists. Swimming in lakes, the density of which is not inferior to the Dead Sea, is of great benefit for the prevention and treatment of skin and lung diseases. Salt is also mined for export on the lakes.
Dusty Rose Lake in Canada
A unique lake of pale pink color is located in British Columbia Canada. The lake is little known and rather mysterious. The water in the lake is not at all salty, does not contain Red Algae, but pink. The color of the water is due to the amazing combination of stone dust from the glacier. Thousands of tourists have chosen this magical place for their travels.
Pink lake in Crimea
Pink lakes are not unique to the Wild West. In the Crimea, it turns out, there is also a similar unique reservoir. Koyashskoye lake near Cape Opuk in the Kerch steppe acquires a rich shade of rose several times a year. According to scientists, this is due to bacteria, which acquire a reddish tint in the heat, brine shrimp, as well as dunaliella (unicellular algae). In the hot season, here stones and plants are covered with a salt film. The area of \u200b\u200bthe lake is 500 hectares, and the depth does not exceed a meter. Koyashskoye Lake is the saltiest in Crimea. In addition, the reservoir is famous for its healing properties.
