In the post-Soviet space there are at least two geographical objects with the name "Curve Lake", each of which is interesting and attractive in its own way! One of them is located in the Republic of Belarus, and the other in the south of Ukraine.
Beauty of the Belarusian Lake District
Not only Poland or Finland can boast of their lake regions. There is a "lake" in Belarus. It is located in the north of the country, mainly within the Vitebsk region. The deep pits of the lakes here are adjacent to the moraine ridges and low gentle hills of glacial origin.
In total, at least 11,000 lakes of various sizes and shapes are concentrated in the Belarusian Lakeland. And each of them looks very picturesque! The names of these lakes, for the most part, are also no less beautiful and mysterious: Suya, Snudy, Shchaty, Velje and Zavele ...
The landscapes of the Belarusian Lake District are so good that many travelers compare them with the Bavarian ones. In this article, we will pay special attention to only one of the 11 thousand of these marvelous reservoirs.
Krivoe lake: location and description
70 kilometers west of Vitebsk, not far from the P113 highway, there is this natural wonder. It is very difficult to make a holistic photo of Crooked Lake. To do this, you need to rise to the sky, since its outlines are bizarre and unusually original.
The complex shape of the basin of the reservoir is easily explained by its origin. The modern Krivoe lake is the result of the interaction of thermokarst and glacial processes, a real work of art performed by Mother Nature. If you walk along its shores, you can see numerous bays, stretches, islets and narrow channels. The lake is quite deep (in the western part of the reservoir, the depths reach 20-30 meters).
Due to the complex topography and difficult coastal configuration, completely different environmental conditions have developed in different stretches of this reservoir. So, on one site here you can see real swamps, on the next - sandy, and on the third - stone and pebble deposits.
Rest on the Crooked Lake
In 1979, Lake Krivoye was declared a hydrological reserve. Wild, uninhabited shores, the absence of cities and any industrial enterprises near this reservoir attract a large number of tourists. In addition, from almost all sides the lake is surrounded by a thick strip of forest, which creates additional conditions for recreation.
Both air and water are crystal clear. Along the coastline you can find great places for sunbathing and swimming. In the waters of the lake there are pike, perch, roach, zander, eel and other fish species. In the plankton of the reservoir there is a relict species of crustacean - Limnocalanus macrurus.
The shores of Crooked Lake are ideal for small ecological walks and real hikes. Any path here is able to give a lot of pleasant impressions to those who will walk along it. The coastline of the lake is quite free of vegetation, in many places you can safely go directly to the water mirror. The water is almost everywhere clear and transparent, and on the banks you can find a rare plant - the lake midwife, which is listed in the Red Book of Belarus.
Here it is - Lake Krivoe! One of the natural pearls of Belarus, an ideal place for eco-tourism and relaxation from the bustle of the city.
Curved lake of the Nikolaev area: provincial, but very interesting village
Now we will move 800 km to the south, to another Crooked Lake. We are talking about the urban type of the Nikolaev region with a population of about 8000 people. It looks quite provincial and at first glance boring. But if you look carefully, here you can find more than one interesting attraction.
The history of Crooked Lake is no less exciting. The village in the southern Ukrainian steppes was founded in 1762 by the Moldavians. Subsequently, Zaporizhzhya Cossacks, Jews, and Poles joined in with its active development. By the end of the 19th century, more than 4 thousand people already lived in Crooked Lake.
Surprisingly, the village in the Nikolaev region is also closely connected with the strikers - an ethnos that historically lived 500 km from here. In 1951, the whole Carpathian village of Skorodnoe was forcibly resettled to Lake Curve (as part of the post-war exchange of territories between Poland and the Soviet Union). Fighting with great difficulty, but still adapted to the "bare steppe" and the arid climate of Nikolayevshchina.
A tourist in the village of Krivoye Lake will find several attractions for himself. These are two 19th century Orthodox churches with rather unusual architecture, the Catholic Church of St. Louis and a dozen beautiful brick buildings of pre-revolutionary age.