Chalky lakes in Belarus: "Belarusian Maldives", Lyuban, Klimovichi

2024 Author: Harold Hamphrey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:06

There are several dozens of quarries on the territory of the country, some of which are flooded with water. These artificial chalk lakes in Belarus have become a tourist attraction for which tourists from Ukraine, Russia, Latvia and Lithuania come here. The Belarusians themselves do not deprive them of attention either: every year in the summer thousands of people have time to relax in the quarries. For all that, the places are dangerous: the shores are high, the water is deep, the currents are unexpected.

Belarusian Maldives

Volkovysk (village Krasnoselsk) water bodies have received such an enthusiastic name - and for good reason, since the water here is of a pale turquoise color. In combination with the white shores, this creates an amazing ensemble - so beautiful that the Krasnoselsky Cretaceous Lakes in Belarus may well compete with the tropical "bounty". The depth in the quarries reaches 15 meters or more, the total area is 4 km (all of these are two groups of 4-5 reservoirs each).

Not much can compare with the impression made by the chalk lakes in Belarus. Reviews resting there people are full of emotions. They write about the beauty of the water, the charm of the wild beach, thatthe color of the water changes depending on the light: one under the bright sun, the other when it rains.

In 2015, the management of Krasnoselstroymaterialy took serious measures against "wild" recreation: part of the asph alt road was broken, ditches were dug, and concrete blocks were installed in makeshift parking lots. There are police at the entrance and exit. Admission to the lake is by permit only. The territory is patrolled by employees of the enterprise.

The police have a tow truck at their disposal, so that cars of vacationers can be towed to a pen alty parking lot. In addition, due to reclamation, the water is no longer blue - dirty green, and the banks have become completely unsuitable for recreation.

Klimovichi

Just 10 km from the district center in the Mogilev region is the so-called Blue Pit - an impressive pond with jagged edges, tree-covered banks, islands and clear, blue-turquoise water. It is well known to fishermen - in the "pond" there are carp, bream, river catfish, on which you can successfully fish.

According to the “tradition” already familiar to such objects, the Blue Quarry is not alone. Klimovichi Cretaceous Lakes in Belarus (satellite photos show a chain of reservoirs of larger and smaller diameters) - a complex of 13 "craters" of varying degrees of purity and suitability for swimming and fishing.

The Blue Quarry appeared after chalk was mined here 30 years ago. After the work was completed, spring springs were clogged at the bottom, and the reservoir gradually filled with water. Depth, as in other lakes,uneven - the bottom in some places drops to 15 meters.

Luban

No less famous (at least among the citizens of the republic) are the Luban Cretaceous Lakes. In Belarus, Lyuban is a small town located on the Oressa River and surrounded by forest on all sides. It has a Museum of Popular Glory, with a rich collection of archeology, numismatics and bonistics, and in the area there are “craters” of chalk mines filled with water.

The closest to them, according to the reviews of tourists who have visited those places, is the settlement of Urechye - about 10 km in a straight line. These are also chalk quarries, and, just like in the case of the Krasnoselsky reservoirs, the water in them is of a pale turquoise color. There are only two reservoirs, but they are large.

You can also find other lakes here:

• on the road from Slutsk to Lyuban near the villages of Kupniki and Mordvilovichi;
• 1 km southeast of the village of Khotinovo; 12 km northwest of the regional center of Luban;
• Zagornyata, between the villages of Zagornyata and Koptevichi;
• Kamenka, Krichevsky district, Mogilev region.

Birch

Another man-made chalk lakes in Belarus - rest on them is even better than on Krasnoselsky, they are more taken care of - they are located near the town of Bereza, in the Brest region. Local residents say that the quarry began to be developed as early as 1930. However, the flooded quarry that exists today is the result of the Novo-Berezovsky lime plant, which operated from 1961 to 1990.

The peculiarity of the second of the lakes located there is a calm, gently sloping coast, which makes it look more like a natural formation than a chalk mining site. The maximum depth is 18 meters. Moreover, the water is spring, but not the turquoise color that attracts people to Krasnoselsk.

These chalk lakes in Belarus are relatively old, with the exception of the third one. The reservoir appeared only 3-4 years ago, so it still retains typical features: blue-blue water and steep banks. The same and the most "extreme" - the depth in some places reaches 40 meters. Dangerous, but beautiful and exciting - this is how you can characterize this man-made miracle.

In fact, there were four "craters" at the beginning - two of them have merged into one over the past decade.

Grodno

Sinka and Zelenka are chalk lakes (there are actually a lot of them in Belarus) located near Grodno. Another of the little-known sights of the Belarusian Republic.

In summer, the water in them warms up significantly, in addition, it has a higher density compared to fresh lakes. A pine-juniper forest grows around.

Quarries are very popular among local residents, but they are still on the balance sheet of Grodno KSM. Conversations about what to do with them gradually turned into actions: Sinka was covered with sand. The management's plan to completely cover the "crater" with earth and plant a forest on top would require many years of work and effort. This move causes outrage among local residents, but it stillbetter than filling the pond with garbage as originally planned.

The fate of man-made "resorts"

What the future holds for other lakes remains a mystery. Almost each of them, according to experts, is a technical object, swimming there is dangerous to life and he alth and therefore prohibited. But this does not stop people, on the contrary, jumping into the water from a ten-meter cliff is considered a special valor.

The authorities continue to look for a way out: the most desirable for visitors - the transformation into a tourist area - is also the most expensive. A lot of work will have to be done: to strengthen the coast, to equip pedestrian roads around the lakes and convenient approaches to quarries for cars.

But the difficulties are not only in monetary amounts - all these works will take time, and the color of the water in the quarry will gradually change: from such an exotic turquoise to quite familiar green.

There are also proposals to turn some of the quarries into hydrological monuments - but this also requires considerable sums. Therefore, the cheapest, simplest (and undesirable for tourists) plan is to fill them up - and it’s good if only with sand, because the idea of \u200b\u200bwith garbage has its supporters among the authorities and bureaucrats.