Lake Elton

Lake Elton is the largest mineral lake in Europe by area, located in the Pallasovsky District of Volgograd Oblast, Russia, in the northern Caspian Depression, about 18 km from the border with Kazakhstan. It covers roughly 152 km² (18 by 14 km). Its depth ranges from 1.5 m in spring to just 5–10 cm by late summer, and its salinity is 1.5 times higher than the Dead Sea — one reason the water, brine and mud are prized for their healing properties.

Name

The most widely accepted version traces the name to the Mongolian (Kalmyk) "Altyn-Nor" ("golden bottom"), a reading proposed by the naturalist Peter Simon Pallas in 1773. The lake does look golden: at sunset the brine turns red-gold because of the microalga Dunaliella salina. Another version links the name to John Elton, an English lieutenant who took part in the 18th-century Orenburg expedition.

Basin and protection

The lake's basin is a depression between salt domes in the far northeast of the Caspian Depression. Its surface lies about 15–17 metres below sea level, one of the lowest points in Europe. Since 2001 the lake and the surrounding steppe (around 106,000 hectares) have formed the Elton Nature Park, and since 2019 the area has been part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

Why the lake is so shallow

Elton is fed by seven saline rivers and underground springs. In summer, heavy evaporation in the hot steppe climate shrinks it to a depth of just 5–10 cm, shallow enough to walk across as if on a mirror — the source of the famous "mirror" photographs that draw photographers from across Russia. By spring the depth returns to about 1.5 m.

Salinity and healing properties

The brine's salt concentration reaches 200–500 g/l, about 1.5 times that of the Dead Sea. The water is rich in bromine, boron, sodium, magnesium and calcium, and the lake bed and shores hold therapeutic sulphide mud. On the western shore, the Elton balneo-mud sanatorium, founded in 1910, treats musculoskeletal, skin and nervous-system conditions.

History of salt mining

Salt has been extracted at Elton since the time of Ivan the Terrible. In 1747 a commission for salt extraction was established, and the settlement of Elton grew up on the shore, connected to a railway branch in 1904. Industrial extraction continued into the early 20th century, until it was displaced by cheaper salt from Lake Baskunchak.

Getting there

The nearest settlement is the village of Elton in Pallasovsky District, Volgograd Oblast. It is about 340 km east of Volgograd and about 340 km southeast of Saratov. A train runs to Elton station from Moscow. By car, the route goes through Pallasovka; the road to the village is paved, while the last 6 km from the village to the lake is a dirt track.