Abrau Lake

Abrau is the largest freshwater lake in the Krasnodar Territory. In length it stretches for 3 km, and the largest width is 630 m. It is on the Abrau peninsula, 14 km from Novorossiysk. The name of the picturesque lake presented to the famous factory of sparkling wine Abrau-Durso, located on its shores.

The nature of the origin of the lake causes unending disputes among scientists. The latter can not agree on how this lake was formed: as a result of a karst failure, because of the destructive landslides, or all of this is the remains of the ancient Cimmerian freshwater basin.

However, local residents have their own versions for this case: of course, there was a touching legend about the unrequited love of a poor shepherd from Durso and the beautiful daughter of a rich man from Abrau. The girl's parents locked her up with the words "let the aul fall down below the ground, and the river waters flood it, than the lovers will even see at least once."

There is also an instructive version - they say, there was a big rich aul on this place, whose inhabitants, boasting of wealth, wanted to lay out the road to the sea with gold and silver. But the higher powers did not tolerate such pride: in punishment the whole aul fell through the ground, and a lake formed on top.

The depth of Abrau lake is about 11 m. However, the elders say that until recently its maximum depth was about 30 m: unfortunately, the process of siltation and shallowing of the reservoir continues, despite the measures taken.
The lake Abrau is without drainage, no river flows from it, only Durso runs into it, and numerous streams and springs from the mountains. At the bottom of the lake, several keys are beaten, but without a natural drain of the lake water, they leave somewhere.

Surrounding the lake are low mountains with gentle slopes covered with rich relict forests: oaks, hornbeams, colorful bushes, pyramidal poplars, weeping willows. In calm weather, the lake's water is a completely idyllic picture - an emerald mirror that reflects wooded mountains. The height of the lake above sea level is 84 m.
At night, Abrau lake strikes impressionable citizens with a strange whitening strip on its surface - even in winter this strip freezes last. Pragmatic people explain this by the special action of wind and water, plus the keys that beat at the bottom of the lake in this place. But without numerous versions of the origin of the white strip of varying degrees of realism, of course, there were some.

In summer the lake water warms up to +28 ° C, many with pleasure bathe in its waters. The color of the lake is an amazing emerald, and the light turbidity of the water is due to the presence of limestone in the rock of the mountainous Abrau peninsula.