In any part of the world, in any country and in any region on earth, you can find wonderful and surprising in their unique beauty natural places. Here we will talk about the most beautiful corner located near the city of Monchegorsk.
This is Lake Imandra (Murmansk region). The article will focus on an unusual and beautiful landscape created by the nature of these places.
What else is remarkable, besides the beauty of landscapes, these edges? Once, at the very beginning of the 50s, the largest hydraulic structures were built here and a reservoir was created - the Niva cascade of hydroelectric power stations.
A little about the Kola Peninsula
Location of the Kola Peninsula - Murmansk region, north-west of the European part of Russia. It is washed by the shores of the White and Barents Sea.
The main attraction of the peninsula is amazing nature. It has everything: mountains, lakes, rivers, the sea and even the desert.
It occupies the peninsula of 100 thousand square meters. kilometers of area. In its open spaces you can see a lot of amazing and wonderful in terms of natural beauties. Among them is an amazing fabulous lake, which will be discussed below. It is located in the central part of the peninsula.
Imandra Lake: photo, location, discovery
This fabulous lake is the largest on the Kola Peninsula. Its area is 876 square meters. kilometers. The body of water has a very elongated form from north to south (length - 109 kilometers, width - about 19 km). This area belongs to the Lapland Nature Reserve.
This wonderful reservoir was discovered in 1880 by the expedition of geologist N.V. Kudryavtsev. The peculiarity of the lake lies in the fact that over its water surface there are many surprisingly exotic, very different forms of fabulous islands. There are more than 140 of them, and the largest of them is Yerm Island (or Imandra Babinskaya), whose area is about 26 square meters. kilometers.
Description of Imandra Lake
The city of Monchegorsk itself is located on the shore of Lake. Lumbolka, and on its other side is Monche. This is the lip of Lake Imandra. It has a rather complex lobed shape with a large number of bays and bays (they are very convenient for parking), as well as a large number of small islands. The total area of the reservoir is 876 square meters. km The largest depth of Lake Imandra is 67 meters (average –19 meters).
The pond is divided into three parts:
- North - Big Imandra: an area of 328 square meters. km, length - approximately 55 km. and width within 3-5 km .;
- central - Iokostrovskaya Imandra: an area of 351 square meters. km, a width of about 12 km, the width of the bottleneck is 700 meters;
- western - Imandra Babinskaya: area of 133 square meters km
The lake has surprisingly clean and clear water. The bottom is visible even from 11-meter depth. The food of the reservoir is mainly rain and snow. A variety of fish is found in its fresh waves: perch, vendace, salmon, grayling, pike, trout, whitefish.
The lake freezes in early November and opens only in the middle of summer (June-July).
What settlements are located here?
Imandra (lake) - a paradise of the Kola Peninsula. In these beautiful places settled places such as the village of Imandra of the same name with a pond, small villages of Zasheek, Tik-Guba, Khibiny, Afrikandy and the city of Monchegorsk.
Tributaries and the source of the lake
In total, about 20 rivers flow into the lake, including the Pecha, Goltsovka, Malaya Belaya and Kurkenyok. The largest tributaries of the Imandra: Belaya, Monche and Pirenga.
The source is the Niva River.
Natural attractions of the area
The territory of Imandra attracts the attention of many tourists with its amazingly beautiful nature. By water, you can reach (on a yacht or boat) the east coast, crossing from one island to another, and there already climb the peaks of Yumechorr (height 1096 meters) or Goltsovka (height 847 meters) of the Khibiny mountains.
In addition, Imandra is a lake, chosen by lovers of kite surfing - a modern sport. What it is? A kite is a kite linked to a paraglider.
What is this sport like? A man stands on the ground and, holding on to slings, tries to hold a kite in his hands. Having caught the ascending air currents, he gets on the board (snowboard, skateboard, mountainboard, wakeboard or rollers) and feels himself flying. They say impressions are indescribable. Moreover, the larger the kite itself, the more free and exciting "flight".
Sports and tourism in Monchegorsk
This pond is famous for the competitions held here.
Imandra is a lake on the ice of which annually in April international 100 km races are held under the very same kites and other similar sails.
Also developed here are sports such as kayaking, rowing slalom, freestyle, kayaking in stormy water and downhill in stormy water.
There are tourist routes along the rivers (2nd, 3rd and 4th degree of difficulty), which flow into the lake. Imandra, and sports alloys.
For tourists, one-, two- and many-day trips are organized on yachts, kayaks and other types of water transport. There are beautiful modern tourist boats for this: catamarans, rafts, kayaks and kayaks, polyethylene.
This is a wonderful and convenient place for winter entertainment. Where Imandra Lake is located, the kayaking season lasts from May to October.
Khibiny mountains
The Khibiny Mountains is a large, but not very high (up to 1202 m) mountain range located 150 km away. north from the Arctic Circle. The marshy tundra borders on it in the north and south, and to the west and east of it are lakes Imandra and Umbozero.
These peaks represent a series of mountain plateaus, which are dissected by deep passes and gorges with a large number of cliffs.
Imandra (lake) and its surrounding territories attract attention also due to the proximity of the Khibin to them.
The origin of the name of the island
Until now, the origin of the name of the lake is not fully disclosed.
Such an unusual name for the island, A. Kazakov suggested, came from the language of the peoples of Sami origin and means "a lake with a complex configuration of the coastline, with many islands."
There is also an assumption (the opinion of N. N. Poppe) that "imandra" has a common root with the word "imatra". It seems that this is a very ancient name, with non-local origin.
The local Lopar name for the lake is Iverjavr, but it has long been obsolete.
There is another assumption (S. B. Vasiliev) that if we take into account the transport significance of the lake in the daily life of the Lapps mainly in the winter season, it can be assumed that the lake was first called Inmander. In translation, it is either “ice continent” or “ice space” (from the word “inn” - “ice” and “mandera” - “mainland”). And later it began to sound more harmonious for Russian settlers.
In conclusion - the legend
Imandra is the name of the daughter of a hunter who lived on the shore of a small lake. The daughter hunted with her father. She was beautiful and quick, and her laughter aroused sleepy mountains. A young hunter who lived on the other side of the mountains once heard her loud laughter. He went to this sound and, seeing Imandra, was fascinated by her beauty. He forgot that the mountains have deep gorges, because he could not take his eyes off the girl.
The young man fell into one of the abysses, and Imandra began to beg the gods to revive this young man, but they were silent. Then she often cried when she came to the gorge, and once she saw that one of the rocks turned into the face of her beloved, but it remained stone. In desperation, Imandra rushed into the lake, which immediately parted and became very large.