In the eastern part of Crimea is the Kerch Peninsula. It is quite large: it stretches 90 km from west to east, and up to 50 km from north to south. Its area reaches almost 3 thousand square meters. km It is here that the lake of interest to us is located - Aktash. The photos that are in the article reflect the uniqueness of this reservoir.
On the world map of Lake Aktash can be found at the following coordinates: 45 ° 22′31 ″ north latitude and 35 ° 49′45 ″ east longitude. As you can see, the reservoir is located in the northern part of the peninsula. Administratively refers to the Leninsky district. It is a salty drying pond.
Hydronym
There are many names at the reservoir - Al-Il, Aktash, Alilskoye. In the 80s, during the construction of the nuclear power plant, multiple dams and dams were erected, due to which the unification of small reservoirs into one occurred. Thus, Lake Aktash formed. The name was given for the largest of them.
In order to understand what this word means, you need to turn to the Crimean Tatar language. In the literal translation, it sounds like a “white stone” (“ak” - “white”, “tash” - “stone”). There is also a similar word in the Turkic language. It means "bitter salty."
Characteristic
Aktash Lake is the 4th largest pond in the entire Crimean peninsula. It is closed and salty. It is separated from the Sea of Azov by a clay-sand mound. Located between Feodosia and Kerch. If we consider the distance between these cities, the reservoir is almost in the middle.
The average depth of this estuary lake is 2 m (it is shallow). And the area of the water mirror is about 26 km 2 . Basically, the Aktash Lake is fed through the underground waters of the Black Sea artesian basin. When viewed from a bird's eye view, an elongated shape is clearly visible from the northeast to the southwest. It is about 8 km long and about 3 km wide.
Features
The embankment that separates the lake from the sea has a different width. It varies from 0.7 to 1.4 km. It is believed that Aktash was once one with Azov, and later separated. On the coast of the reservoir in the northwestern part is the Kara-Burun Upland. Limestones of the Sarmatian stage are laid along their joint border. And along the southern and eastern parts of the coast are red-brown clays and loams.
In the northern part there are peninsulas - Utiny, Sredny and Ezhovy. And in the center of the reservoir there is a small island called Latau, which rises above sea level by only 0.5 m.
Flora and fauna
Aktash Lake (Crimea) is an amazing natural building. It must be protected and not allowed to dry completely, not only for the benefit of the population living on its coasts, but also for the flora and fauna in this region. Many birds live here, such as gulls, cormorants, herons, storks and others. Therefore, with the onset of the spring season, the lake is very noisy.
In addition to nesting birds, which number about 30 species, small rodents and foxes live in this area. Since the Aktash Lake is of estuary origin, estuary worms are found here, respectively (their presence in this area is very convenient for fishing enthusiasts). A little further from the coastline, trees grow: pine, elm, acacia.
How to get there
City transport does not go to Lake Aktash, and therefore you can get there only by your own car or by taxi. To do this, you first need to get to the bus station in the central capital of the Kerch Peninsula, for example, along the highway of the same name or along Simferopol, the main thing is to choose the right direction. The distance to the reservoir is not close, about 170 km. You can overcome it by car in about 5 hours. At the end of this path, the whitish coast from salt and the Aktash lake itself will be visible.