Lake Shartash history of the origin of the name. Humboldt's plan failed
Lake Shartash and its environs in Sverdlovsk region- it's unique nature reserve. The researchers found that it was formed about 1 million years ago. In fact, the reserve consists of two reservoirs - this is Big and Small Shartash, but it is the large main lake that attracts the greatest interest among tourists and scientists.
This nature Park on the outskirts of the city of Yekaterinburg. Lake Shartash is shaped like a huge bean, spread out in the middle of a huge pit.
History reference
The lake that appeared in prehistoric times, surrounded by high banks, has practically not changed in the entire history of its existence. Here, the flora and fauna of its shores, of course, have undergone some changes. And the giant ferns have given way to needles and flowers, and the habitat of the lizards is now inhabited by moose and bears. The cultures of the tribes that settled on the banks of the different eras. Archaeologists and historians do not exclude that somewhere in the vicinity of Shartash is the ancestral home ancient civilization…
Geography and geology
Now, on the site of the ancient sites, the handsome Yekaterinburg is located. Lake Shartash stores a huge amount of sapropel in its bowels. Until the last century, this reservoir was flowing and had a flow into the nearby one. This flow was located just to the west of the village of Peski. Today, the water level in the lake is maintained by fifty springs.
On the northern shore of the reservoir is the village of Shartash. The first mention of it dates back to the 17th century. The village of Izoplit is located in the east. By the way, the eastern shore of Lake Shartash (Yekaterinburg) is open for swimming.
AT southbound situated locality Sands.
origin of name
Hydronym "Shartash" Turkic (Bashkir or or Many researchers suggest that it is based on the fusion of two roots: "sary" (yellow, white, light) and "tash" (stone). In this case, the toponym is associated with a shade of rocks surrounding the lake. The well-known toponymist A. K. Matveev gives another version: in his opinion, the triplet "ball" can be associated with the Bashkir word "bog". Perhaps there are other versions of the origin of the toponym.
Younger brother
The natural reserve mentioned by us is famous not only for this reservoir. Another attraction that Yekaterinburg is famous for is Lake Shartash Maly. Although it does not have such fame, it is no less amazing place. Once both reservoirs were connected by a canal, but now it has become swampy and overgrown.
In shape, Small Shartash resembles grain and has a rather modest size. Streams flow from the lake, flowing into the Istok River (a tributary of the Iset). The western shore of the reservoir is bordered by granite remnants, which are also called "tents".
The shores of this lake also keep traces of the habitation of ancient people. According to historical sources, it was inhabited in the Stone and Iron Ages.
Shartash forest park
The southern and southeastern shores of Lake Shartash are covered with mixed forest. It grows both traditionally wild and urban plant species. The pearl of the forest park is the historical and geological monument "Stone tents".
On the territory of the forest park there are several more interesting sights for tourists and researchers. For example, an ancient altar, archaeological site. And in 2012, on the banks of the Shartash, near the boat station, scientists from the Institute of History and Archeology discovered another object - traces of a Neolithic settlement.
Ekaterinburg, Lake Shartash, forest park and "Stone tents" are of interest to sports lovers. Tourists and athletes come here not only from all over Russian Federation but from abroad. Rock climbers are attracted by unique megaliths. The sports trails of the forest park are open to cyclists and rollerbladers. And the eastern shore of Lake Shartash (Yekaterinburg) is equipped with wonderful beaches. In different years, depending on the conditions, other coasts are also open for swimming. In addition, there is a boat station on the lake.
Swimming in the lake
The place is considered very clean, in any case, most of the city's residents are sure of this. The body of water that Yekaterinburg is so proud of - Lake Shartash - pleases the eye with its blue iridescent water. But, apparently, not only people like the composition of water. Sanitary doctors regularly make samples, periodically identifying pathogens of dangerous diseases.
Most of the bottom surface is silted. In some places there are quite sharp protruding rocky fragments. The average depth of the lake is only 3 meters, but in some places there are depressions up to 5.5 meters deep.
The eastern shore of Lake Shartash (Yekaterinburg) has a less muddy bottom, and the water is cleaner there. But even this area is sometimes under the scrutiny of the sanitation station. During periods of the threat of infection with infectious diseases, the beaches of the lake are closed.
Tourist infrastructure
The hospitable lake Shartash (Yekaterinburg) is waiting for guests all year round. Rest on its shores can be both active and relaxing. Hospitable camp sites are waiting for those who are tired of the bustle of the city and just want peace. There are many small restaurants and cozy cafes on the shore of the lake.
Local residents living in nearby villages rent housing to lovers of green tourism. Such a vacation may seem especially attractive to those who decide to go on a trip with children.
Tourists can easily find everything they need in stores located almost everywhere.
"Stone tents"
Lake Shartash (Yekaterinburg), whose photos look like illustrations for old Russian fairy tales, is beautiful in its surroundings. The unique "Stone tents" are a perfect confirmation of this. These are remnant rocks made of granite, located not far from the reservoir we are considering, practically within the city limits (Kirov district). In the Middle Urals, this object is considered the most unusual, picturesque, monumental and accessible monument of natural beauty and ancient culture.
According to the latest archaeological information, up to 10 sites and settlements were located on the banks of the Shartash ancient man. The earliest known to date date back to the 3rd millennium BC. e., and even to even earlier historical periods. The researchers note that these settlements, apparently, possessed elements and signs of an ancient religious cult. There is evidence of commodity production. The surface of the "Stone tents" keeps traces of the fact that once there was a sacrificial place, apparently related to one of the ancient pagan cults.
It must be not in vain that Lake Shartash, Yekaterinburg, the beach on its shore, green spaces around attract vacationers here. All these places have been chosen by man almost from prehistoric times.
Today Shartash stones keep many testimonies of ancient times. It is sad that not all modern visitors unique park understand the importance and value of this. They leave evidence of their own stay in the reserve on ancient stones, sometimes irrevocably destroying priceless exhibits.
Directions
For those who choose to visit amazing lake Shartash (Yekaterinburg), it is better to know in advance how to get there.
If you plan to travel by car, it is better to get through Yekaterinburg. On st. Blucher must head towards the exit outside the city. Further through the automobile bridge to get to the street. Passing by. Approximately 600 m from the bridge, a T-shaped unregulated intersection will be visible. On it you need to turn right (to the hotel "Hermitage"). From this place you can already see the coast. Further movement occurs along it. You can get to the lake and public transport, departing from the concrete goods or Shefskaya.
It is also better to get to "Stone tents" from Yekaterinburg. Trams of routes No. 8, 13, 15, 23, 32 go there, as well as Shuttle Buses No. 25, 27, 61, 157. The stop is called "Stone tents". Car owners need to follow the street. Malysheva on the street that continues it. Vysotsky. The reserve is located directly opposite the end of the building KOSK "Russia".
Whenever the inhabitants of Yekaterinburg have conversations about the fate of Lake Shartash, their conversation ends with such a rather sad judgment: “They will ruin it! They will surely lose! The forest will be cut down, the banks will be built up, there will be no lake left.” And someone else will remark with reproach: "In the old days, illiterate men understood it too."
So what did they, peasants, understand, and what do we educated people not understand? What kind of Lake Shartash is this, which someone is going to destroy?
We will reveal the tourist scheme of Yekaterinburg. On its general grayish-green background, a blue spot at the right, eastern, edge of the sheet will immediately catch our eye. In its shape, it resembles a bean grain, concave facing west. This is Lake Shartash. Its real dimensions are as follows: length, from north to south, four and a quarter, width, from west to east, two and a half kilometers. The length of the coastline is 12 kilometers. The area is 715 hectares.
By the way, if you like relaxing by the water, then in winter it is better to go to warm countries. In particular, in recent times at Russian tourists very popular tours in the Dominican Republic — paradise in the Caribbean.
On reflection, we can say: well, what kind of lake is this, so-so, a little lake! Of course, Shartash is not Baikal or Aral. But for the residents of Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk region, Shartash is the same as the Aral for the Karakalpak people: the life and health of the people. Let's not be afraid of such a comparison. The scale may not be comparable, but the essence is the same: there is an ecological disaster on the reservoir. The priceless lake was on the verge of destruction.
For one and a half million people in Sverdlovsk, only two reservoirs have survived, more or less suitable for swimming. These are Pond Verkh - the Iset Metallurgical Plant and Shartash.
On hot summer days, tens of thousands of citizens gather on the shores of the lake. The water is crowded, like on Sochi beaches. And in winter, many thousands of fans of ice fishing sit on the ice near the holes with fishing rods. Among them are children and women.
Schoolchildren alone, without adults, get here by public transport and with great pleasure, like real fishermen, conjure over the holes. They will be unspeakably delighted, but they will not show it when they pull a striped perch or the famous Shartash chebachok out of the hole. And our children sat here with the streets, both winter and summer dawns. They and all of us, the townspeople, will lose something huge, so necessary, if there is no lake.
Shartash is a typical Gornoural lake: a bowl-shaped depression in a granite massif is filled with fissured and sedimentary waters. The blue water of the lake is transparent, the golden sand glitters at the bottom, the shore is picturesque with granite boulders, rocks and a wall. pine forest, a blue ridge of elevations stretches at a distance on the horizon, and all around is a boundless sea of forests.
A milky-pink fog covers the water at dawn, the drawn-out cries of invisible seagulls and splashes of large fish are heard. Quietly hissing and whispering about something is the water near the coastal sand, and around - unshakable peace.
Now the picture is different. Today, instead of golden sand, silt darkens at the bottom. The legs are drowning in an unpleasantly viscous, sucking mud, and from under it, turbidity rises in clubs to the surface. If you try to swim, your body, arms, and legs are entangled in long threads of algae, sticking, pulling you to the bottom. The water is green, cloudy, filled with bacteria, blooms. The lake is getting shallower every year. In some years, its level dropped by 20 centimeters over the summer.
There is as much silt in the lake as water. And the thickness of its layer reaches five meters. Three-quarters of the lake's surface is covered with patches of algae, like islands. A colossal amount of organic matter, phosphorus, nitrogen has accumulated in water and silt. Epidemiologists have found coli- a sign that fecal effluents enter the lake. In a hot summer, an outbreak of bacterial contamination of water is quite likely, similar to the one that happened in 1986 on the Riga coast and on the Black Sea near Odessa. There have already been fish kills. The forest thinned along the banks, and from the south it completely disappeared. And now the wild wasteland gapes here.
Scientists have calculated: in such a situation, the lake will live no more than 15 - 20 years. And then it will turn into a swamp, which was Lake Shuvakish in the north of the city and Lake Maly Shartash in the southeast.
This is a sentence, harsh and merciless. And what, did he alarm someone, did people rush to save the pearl of the city? No. It's amazing, but it's true.
Maybe only specialists know about Shartash's misfortune? No, newspapers write about it, radio talks about it, they show it on television. The problem of Shartash was discussed at the city and regional levels. Schoolchildren know about the state of the lake, teachers know, adults know. So what's the deal? Why is nothing being done to save him?
To answer these questions and understand the situation, you will have to look into the distant past, look around three centuries.
The great connoisseur of the Urals and local historian Narkis Chupin, describing the construction of a factory and the Yekaterinburg fortress on the Iset in 1723, mentioned that Lake Shartash and the village were located six miles from the fortress. With the beginning of the construction of the plant, the village has grown greatly.
The name of the lake was transferred to the village. Its first huts were cut down by the Old Believers and Kerzhaks in the last quarter of the 17th century. The settlers hunted fish and game on the lake, took water for drinking and farming. This is how imperceptibly they laid the foundation for the development of the lake.
Of course, being believers, they treated water and the surrounding nature as a gift from God, and as hard workers and good owners, they did everything to keep the lake and shores beautiful and clean, and the water suitable for humans. They understood what was what, although they did not know about ecology.
But when they began to build a plant on the Iset. and then the second, building sand was taken from Shartash by carts. And since then they took it out without stopping, until the 20th century, until they scraped it off the banks to the last shovel. Since 1910, they began to take sand from under the water in winter from ice. So the lake lost its sandy base. This was the first powerful blow to Shartash.
In 1745, Erofey Markov discovered native gold, the first in the Urals, on the Berezovka River, six versts east of the lake. A gold rush broke out. Then it was born: the Urals - the land of gold. In search of gold, they dug holes in the shores of the lake. They have survived to this day. Then I cut them out in layers of building stone.
In 1756, a deep ditch was dug from the lake to the Alexander Ponds on the Berezovka River in order to wash the Berezovka gold with Shartash water. There was not enough water. Ego turned out to be the second blow to Shartash.
In 1829, the great German scientist, naturalist and traveler A. Humboldt arrived in the Urals. He examined the Berezovsky gold mines. Even then, underground waters accumulated in the mines, interfering with work. The authorities did not know how to get rid of this trouble. Humboldt suggested that Shartash was connected with mine waters and recommended that the waters of Shartash be dumped into the Pyshma River, lowering the level of the lake.
Lev Ivanovich Brusnitsyn, a mining foreman in an employee of the mining administration, the discoverer of the first alluvial gold in the Urals, knew the local relief well and did not agree with the conclusions of the scientist. But Humboldt's authority was too great. Following his advice, an adit was dug at the northern end of the lake, a canal was dug, and the waters of Shartash rushed into the Kalinovka River and Pyshma. This was the third, already fatal blow to Shartash.
By 1834 the lake had flowed out. In the basin there was a reservoir with an area of 45 hectares. And the mines were still flooded with underground water. , Master Brusnitsyn was right.
Fortunately, the adit was soon covered with silt. Water accumulated in the lake. But it took a whole fifty years for it to reach its former size. Of course, it was already a different lake, with a different life.
Over the following decades, the water level in Shartash either rose or fell again. Silt accumulated, the lake became polluted. In the 40s of our century, it finally silted up, became drainless.
In 1959-60, an attempt was made to clear the lake of silt by a hydromechanical method, using a dredger. But the desired results were not obtained. The condition of the lake has not improved. The silt was thrown ashore, and it again flowed into the lake. In addition, in some places, silt seems to have cemented the soil, blocking the way for groundwater that feeds the lake. In those same years, forests were brought to the silty shores in order to at least somehow mark the beaches.
In the snowy and dry 70s, the water level in the lake dropped sharply. It was then that the voice of the public in defense of the lake sounded. More in-depth hydrological studies were launched. The City Executive Committee adopted a decision "On urgent measures to improve Lake Shartash." Developed and approved legal document: "Instruction on the rules for the operation of the reservoir." A scheme (project) has been drawn up for cleaning the lake from silt and using it as an organic fertilizer and feeding the lake from other reservoirs. A project for the improvement of the coast has been developed.
It remains only to start work. But the years passed, but they did not start, they waited for something, they feared something, they frightened the scale of the case, the turnover was overwhelming, and there were no free builders, and the required millions were not found. They thought: Shartash will wait.
But then an incredible thing happened: the lake, as if taking revenge on people for slowness and indecision, overflowed its banks, flooded the artificial beaches, the southern village of Peski, forest, meadows.
Since 1982, due to the general moistening of the territory, a sharp rise in water in the lake began. But it still remained silty, polluted, and required cleaning. A new, more terrible danger has appeared. In the city executive committee, they signed the decision to save the lake with one hand, and the documents on the construction on its water protection area with the other residential area in other objects, that is, about his destruction. The reinforced concrete tongs of urbanization squeezed the throat of the lake.
The eastern bank of Shartash is high and steep. Granite slabs and blocks descend to the water. From above, the entire shore, the entire water surface of the lake is clearly visible. A very narrow strip of forest turns blue on the western shore. And from all sides the masses of houses approach. The village of Shartash also became huge, covering the floor of the lake with an arc.
It is windy, the waves are splashing on the stones and talking, talking about something angrily, grouchily. Often visiting here, peering into the Shartash distances, peering into the remnants of that old Shartash sand, preserved under the boulders, listening to the sound of the waves and thinking about the difficult fate of Shartash. Three hundred years of his life have gone into oblivion through its sand. Our ancestors left us a heavy legacy here. But we are smarter and more experienced than them, and we are obliged, and we can correct, and not exacerbate their mistakes.
Lake Bolshoy Shartash is one of the few lakes of its kind in the world! It was formed, according to the reasonable opinion of scientists, about 1 million years ago. And, interestingly, the shape of the lake, resembling a bean spool (the convex side is to the east), and located in the basin, has practically not changed since those distant eras. Only on its banks did the flora and fauna change, giant ferns were replaced by conifers and flowering plants, and lizards different types gave way to bears, elks, wolves on the wooded shores of the lake. It is believed that not only the vegetation and animal world. The cultures of the human tribes that inhabited the shores in different historical epochs changed, and, perhaps, once there was the center of some ancient civilization, traces and indications of which no, no, and will appear to the inquisitive gaze of researchers of the mysterious ...
In the basin of the lake over the millennia has accumulated a large number of sapropel deposits. Until the 20th century, the lake was flowing and had a flow into the Iset River. The Shartash runoff was located to the west of the modern village of Peski. Currently, it is drainless, and the level of the lake is maintained by springs (springs), which are known from fifty.
On the northern shore of the lake is the village of Shartash (known since the 17th century!), on the eastern shore - the village. Izoplit, in the south - the village. Sands.
Toponymy
The hydronym "Shartash" is of Turkic (Bashkir or Tatar) origin; it is usually explained as the result of the merging of two roots: sary - "yellow" / "white" and tash - "stone", linking the meaning of the toponym with the shade of coastal rocks. This is how the famous toponymist A.K. explains the meaning of the word. Matveev in his dictionaries, however, he also adds that the origin of this toponym is possibly connected with the Bashkir word ball - “bog” (used, probably, in relation to the Maloshartashsky swamp). It is possible that there are other readings of this toponym.
Lake Maly Shartash
This is a small hard-to-reach lake, located southeast of Bolshoy Shartash among the swampy lowland of the Maloshartash swamp, and now overgrown with sedge and cattail. Once a channel was dug here, connecting the Small Shartash with the Bolshoi, but now it is practically covered with sediments and overgrown.
In shape, the lake no longer resembles the “bean” of Bolshoi Shartash, but rather a grain of wheat, and its size is noticeably smaller. Streams run out of the lake, feeding the river at The source is the left tributary of the Iset. The western shore is bordered by granite remnants - "tents" like large Shartash stone tents.
In the era of the New Stone Age and the Iron Age, the surroundings of the Small Shartash were also inhabited by ancient people, as were the shores of the Big Shartash, as evidenced by traces of settlements on its northwestern coast.
They explored Shartash
Over the past 300 years, the Shartash tents and Lake Shartash have been studied by many famous world-class scientists.
Pallas, Peter Simon (Peter Simon Pallas; 1741-1811) - the famous German and Russian encyclopedic scientist, naturalist, geographer and traveler of the XVIII-XIX centuries. He became famous for scientific expeditions across Russia, including an expedition to the Urals in the second half of the 18th century. He made a significant contribution to world and Russian science - biology, geography, geology, philology and ethnography.
Lepekhin Ivan Ivanovich (1740-1802), state councilor and cavalier, traveler and naturalist, academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Participated in many scientific expeditions, who examined various Russian provinces from a natural and ethnographic point of view: in 1768-1772 he traveled, partly alone, partly with Pallas, in the Urals, the Volga region, Western Siberia, in the Russian North and the western Russian provinces of Russia.
Von Humboldt, Friedrich Alexander (Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt, 1769-1859, Berlin) - German encyclopedic scientist, physicist, meteorologist, geographer, botanist, zoologist and traveler. Thanks to Humboldt's research, the scientific foundations of geomagnetism were laid. Member of the Berlin (1800), Prussian and Bavarian Academies of Sciences. Honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1818).
Hoffman, Ernest Karlovich (Ernst Reinhold Hofmann, 1801 -1871) - famous Russian (born in Dorpat (Tartu) - in present-day Estonia) geologist, geographer, traveler. In 1828 he researched Southern Urals, together with Gelmersen, published in Berlin the work "Geognostische Untersuchung der Süd-Uralgebirges" (1831). In 1843 he went to Eastern Siberia for the study of gold placers; trip report […]
Rose, Gustav (Gustav Rose, 1798 - 1873) - German mineralogist and geologist; professor of mineralogy at the University of Berlin. Rose accompanied Alexander von Humboldt on his journey through the Urals and Siberia. In the field of mineralogy, Rose established a crystal-chemical system of minerals. For the first time he gave a description of gold-bearing rocks - beresite and listvenite (by the name of the Berezovsky factories and Mount Listvyanaya in the vicinity of Shartash and […]
Claire Onisim Yegorovich (1845-1920). Born in Switzerland, in the city of Corcelles (Corcelles, kanton Bern). Educator, ethnographer, founder of the UOLE - the Ural Society of Natural Science Lovers, its scientific secretary and president. He graduated from an industrial school in Neuchatel (Neuchâtel) in Switzerland (1862).
Kler Modest Onisimovich (1879-1966) - Russian geologist, paleontologist, hydrogeologist, local historian. Author of more than 60 works on geology, hydrogeology, paleontology and local history. The son of the Ekaterinburg local historian, the founder of O. E. Kler. Associate Professor of the Ural Mining Institute (since 1918). He taught at the universities of Sverdlovsk until 1951.
In the middle to the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Shartashsky tents attracted the attention of a number of scientists: geographers, geologists, archaeologists, as well as local historians (Golovko VK and others) and tourists. Shartash was studied and described in their books by well-known Ural scientists.
Half a century ago, the lake was located outside the city limits and it was not easy to get to it. Lost among the dense pine forest and swamps surrounding it (Kalinovskoye, Shartashskoye, Chistovskoye), it was considered inaccessible. To the southeast of Bolshoy Shartash, at some distance, there was Lake Maly Shartash, also surrounded by swamps.
For a long time, on the northern shores of Lake Bolshoy Shartash, there was only one Old Believer village Shartash. At the beginning of the 20th century on south coast a small settlement of Peski appeared, and in the 1930s, at some distance from the eastern coast, the settlement of Izoplit arose with a factory for the manufacture of peat insulating boards (at present, there is no peat production, the flower-growing farm "Flowers of the Urals" is located on the site of the factory). On the southeastern side of the lake in the 1980s, on the site of the Shartash swamp, the Komsomolsky microdistrict was built.
Nowadays, Shartash is an endorheic reservoir. The lake has an almost regular bean shape, with its convex side facing east. It stretches from North to South for 4 km, from West to East - for 2-2.5 km and has a mirror area of 7.0 sq. km. Modern coastline, about 12 km long, is slightly indented. The bottom of the lake slopes down to the center. Most of it is covered with dark olive-colored silt - sapropel, and in recent years it has been heavily littered. The average depth of the lake is 3 m, and the largest in the center of the reservoir is 4.7 m.
"Round Lake" or "Yellow Stone"?
It is difficult to determine where the name of the lake and the village came from. If we take as a basis the main component - "ball" and "tash" from the Turkic language, we can translate "shartash" as a lake " yellow stone". A similar explanation is given in his toponymic dictionaries by the famous Ural toponymist A.K. Matveev. He connects such a translation with the fact that during the destruction of granites, within which the basin of the lake is laid, yellow-brown rubble and yellow sand are formed.
Free translation of the village name as " round stone” or “Whetstone” is scientifically incorrect, although the name “Round Stone” or “Round Lake” is most suitable for the shape of the reservoir.
Shartash and ancient man
The relationship between the lake and man began in ancient times, in the Neolithic (5-7 thousand years ago) and Bronze Age (2-3 thousand years ago). The ancient man appreciated the favorable conditions of the area and built parking lots and settlements (unfortified settlements) along the ancient shores of the lake.
Archaeologists have found several Neolithic and Bronze Age sites on the capes of the western shore of Shartash (Cape Runduk) and its eastern shore, in the Krasnaya Gorka tract. Later, in the era of the Iron Age (2300-2700 years ago), primitive people found places for religious rites - altars, which were usually located in the mountains, on high cliffs. Scientists claim that the Shartash Stone Tents were such a sacrificial place.
Shartash village
The village of Shartash, founded in 1662, at the beginning of the 18th century gained all-Russian fame as one of the organizational centers of the Old Believers. She was a safe haven and transit base to Siberia for the persecuted schismatics. The main occupation of the inhabitants of Shartash was trade, and every year they traveled to the Nizhny Novgorod Fair, Moscow and even Little Russia. Most Shartash residents had Moscow roots.
Shartash and the Gold Rush
In 1745, in the area of the Berezovka River, a tributary of the Pyshma, a well-known miner, a resident of the village of Shartash, Yerofey Markov, discovered the first native gold in Russia. Since 1748 (the year the village of Berezovsky was founded), the deposit has been continuously developed and, as the mines deepen, “fights” with groundwater.
In 1756, as historical sources testify, a ditch 7-10 m deep, up to 5-7 m wide, 7 versts long was dug from the north-eastern part of the lake to the upper reaches of the Berezovka River (where the first dam already stood and the Alexander Pond was formed). In the most difficult conditions, without any equipment, the workers of the gold mines - exiled migrants, some of them - convicts and recruits, driven by a shout and a whip - crushed granite with a pick, pick and shovel and transported it on wheelbarrows, forming high banks above the ditch. However, this ditch, called the "Alexandrovsky ditch", did not give a large influx of water into the mines, but over time it was silted up and began to overgrow.
In 1824, mining engineer O.S. Osipov suggested new plan, very original: by means of dams and canals, it was necessary to connect the lakes Bolshoi and Maly Shartash into a single reservoir in order to raise the water level in it by several meters. This would increase the flow of water along the Alexander Ditch to the upper reaches of the Berezovka River. This plan included making three pools of water along the Alexander Ditch in ledges, each 10 m lower than the other, and under the ledges to arrange water wheels that would set the mine pumps in motion. But this plan was rejected by the mining authorities as costly and time-consuming.
In our time, the Aleksandrovsky moat has been preserved in a small area: from the lake to Fabrichnaya Street, and the rest has long been covered up and occupied by collective gardens. Water in the preserved section of the moat accumulates only after the snow melts. There is no connection with the lake, because there is a road near the shore.
Thus, in the middle of the 18th century, the lake experienced the first noticeable economic impact of man.
Humboldt's plan failed
Three quarters of a century later, the lake was again "attacked" by people. At the end of the 20s of the 19th century, the Berezovsky mines deepened noticeably and began to be flooded with groundwater even more. Just at this time, in June 1829, Alexander Humboldt (1769-1859, scientist, traveler, one of the founders of German natural science) arrived in the Urals, in Yekaterinburg. Having examined the lake and the Berezovsky mines, he came to the conclusion that it was necessary to lower the lake to Pyshma. In his opinion, a decrease in the water level in the lake would have led to the drainage of the surrounding swamps, and this should have reduced the flow of groundwater into the mines. The authority of a world-famous scientist did not allow listening to the statement of mining masters, in particular, L.I. Brusnitsyn, who knew the sheological structure of the area well and did not believe in the success of such a thing. And the mountain authorities were little interested in the fate of the lake: after all, it was about gold!
Already after the departure of Humboldt from the Urals, in 1831-1832, from the center of the lake to the north (towards the modern radio station), they began to build an underground adit and a ditch (the people called it the Humboldt ditch), through which water from the lake rushed into the Kalinovka River, and from it to Pyshma.
Soon, a small silty lake remained on the site of the Shartash Lake (the water area of the lake was reduced by 16 times compared to its present size), to the chagrin and disadvantage of the Shartash population, one of whose occupations was fishing. At that time, the southwestern part of the lake was completely drained and turned into a flowering meadow, which still retains the name "the bay of mowing", a mountainous cape on the western shore of the reservoir - Cape Runduk (Runduk - chest) was released from under the water. So in the XVII century in Tula and in other cities middle lane Russians called large rectangular chests with a lid for storing food). Cape Runduk, which flows into the lake, in its appearance resembles such a large chest - its slopes are almost sheer, and the surface is flat, covered with a pine forest.
Fortunately, the final drainage of the lake did not occur, since the adit was covered with silt after 15 months. Meanwhile, the waters in the mines continued to interfere with gold mining. Therefore, the idea of further draining the lake was abandoned. Humboldt is wrong! Yes, it could not be otherwise. Those few days that he spent studying the area could not give reliable results. Only in the 20th century, hydrogeologists proved that the structure of the Shartashsky granite massif (within which most of the lake bed is located) and the Berezovsky ore field have a different geological structure and depth of fractured waters.
Gradually, mainly due to atmospheric precipitation and snowmelt, as well as underwater springs, the lake began to increase in size and in the mid-80s of the XIX century, Lake Shartash reached its previous size, and after a while even larger than before the water was drained : this is how the artificial connection of Lake Shartash with the water system of the Pyshma basin ended.
Istok and the village of Sands
The natural flow of the lake into the Iset River - Shartashsky old flow, as old maps of the mid-18th and early 19th centuries show, was carried out through south bay, somewhat west of the village of Sands. Already at the very end of the last century, the Old Stok was not distinguished by constancy and, flowing through the swamp, did not always bring its waters to the Iset (the Shartashsky Stok, in the past the left tributary of the Iset, had a mouth near the village, now the city of Aramil).
By the beginning of the 20th century, in the area of \u200b\u200bthis Stok, the surf of sand, pebbles, clay and shells created a coastal rampart along which the road passed. Behind the road in 1910, the village of Peski arose (it existed until 1987, until it was flooded due to a temporary rise in waters).
The sand of Lake Shartashskoe is pure quartz, with a small admixture of gray clay, and was used as brewing sand, which, along with lime, is a necessary flux additive for copper blast-furnace smelting. The main and almost the only supplier of building sand for Yekaterinburg factories was the beach of Lake Shartash. Since 1910, sand has been extracted from the underwater part. In winter, the work moved deeper into the lake on the ice. That is why there are holes in the coastal part of the reservoir, which you must beware of when swimming. Evidence of the intensive development of sand in the past are noticeable along the banks (eastern, southeastern) recesses, now already overgrown with grass and shrubs.
Younger brother - Small Shartash
At a short distance from the lake Big Shartash in the southeast direction there is a small lake - Small Shartash - among the swampy lowlands of the Maloshartash swamp.
Lake Small Shartash is a big Shartash in miniature. The same oval shape, elongated from north to south for a length of less than one kilometer. The width of the reservoir is 400 m, average depth- 1.2 m, the largest - 1.8 m, mirror area - 3.4 ha. This lake is located 9 m below the Bolshoy Shartash level. Streams run out of the lake, feeding the Istok River (the left tributary of the Iset River). On the western shore of the reservoir there are also granite rocks - Small Shartashsky - a copy of a large, but smaller size. Their height is 8-9 m. The lake is heavily overgrown with sedge, cattail, reed. There is less than 2 ha of open water left.
In the vicinity of the lake and on its northwestern shore, archaeologists have discovered traces of an ancient human settlement - from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. Despite the proximity to the metropolis, the fauna of Lake Maly Shartash is very diverse - in spring there are a lot of migratory songbirds, many waterfowl, amphibians, reptiles, including snakes and vipers; from mammals - foxes, hares, squirrels. There are fish - chebak, perch, bream. The lake is visited only knowledgeable people, access by cars is not possible.
Nina Petrovna ARKHIPOVA,
candidate of geographical sciences.
Ural geographical journal "Podorozhnik", summer 2006
In the northeast and at a distance of 50 km from Yekaterinburg is Lake Shartash. Its length is about 4 km, the width is about 3 km, and the greatest depth is 5.5 m, but the average for the reservoir is 3 m. Also, it has a lot of algae, which occupy 80% of the lake area. It got its name from two Turkic words: "sary", which means "yellow" and "tash" - a stone, meaning the color of coastal rocks.
Lake Shartash appeared about 1 million years ago and ancient religious buildings called "dolmens" are still preserved on its shores. The lake basin has tectonic origin and was filled in the Quaternary period. The presence of ancient coastal ridges and terraces on the shore indicates that once the water level in the lake was much higher than now.
Lake Shartash in Yekaterinburg - beautiful photos.
On the northern side of the reservoir is the village of Shartash, where gold was previously mined. On the east side - the village of Izoplit, and on the south - the village of Peski. Not far from the lake you can see the unique natural monument: among the pine forest there are granite rocks Stone tents, they are a landmark of Yekaterinburg.
A photo: rocks Stone tents.
The peculiarities of its location contribute to the fact that it is always crowded here, especially in summer. Not so long ago, a private beach was opened on the shore, there is an opportunity to rent boats, catamarans, bicycles, gazebos with barbecue facilities, sun loungers, there is entertainment for children, a football field, a cafe and a disco.
Photo: fishing on Lake Shartash in Yekaterinburg.
Of the fish in the lake, there are crucian carp, carp, perch, ruff, roach, tench and gudgeon. But in dry years, due to a decrease in the water level in the reservoir, the fish lacks oxygen and its death occurs. And so in spring, autumn and even in winter, fishermen often go fishing here.
Video: Lake Shartash
