Dzhumalinskiye Springs

Dzhumalinskiye Springs, also known as Teply Klyuch (Warm Spring), is a group of thermal springs in the Altai Mountains, in the Kosh-Agach district of the Altai Republic. They lie in the valley of the Dzhumaly River at an elevation of about 2,400 meters, 70-100 km southeast of the village of Kosh-Agach and about 5 km north of the Kalguty mine. Since 1978 the springs have held the status of a local nature monument; they are now protected under a 2010 decree of the Altai Republic government, and the protected area covers 1.3 hectares.

Nature and water composition

The combined flow of the springs reaches 15 liters per second. The water is fresh, sodium chloride-sulfate-hydrocarbonate in composition, with mineralization of 0.18-0.31 g/dm3 and a temperature of 10 to 20 degrees Celsius; its pH ranges from 7.04 to 9.24. The water has elevated levels of fluorine (up to 15.5 mg/l), silicic acid (up to 28.2 mg/l), nitrogen (up to 94.7%) and radon (7.4 to 107 Bq/l); because of the high concentration of fluorine, lithium, tungsten and molybdenum, it is not recommended for drinking. The protected area contains about forty separate outlets that local residents call "healing" points.

Legends and rituals

According to legend, a hunter once wounded a maral deer and chased it for a long time until the wounded animal plunged into the spring and suddenly healed; it later turned out that the maral had transformed into a beautiful girl, the mistress of the spring. The Altai people revere the spring as an arzhan, a sacred place: visitors traditionally bring offerings of milk, bread, talkan, tea and syrik, and in a greeting ritual they light a fire and sprinkle milk and juniper smoke toward the four points of the compass. According to local accounts, a shaman died here in the early 2000s, after which the spring came to be called Saltarsky, meaning "fateful" in the Altai language.

Getting there

About a hundred kilometers of dirt road leads from the village of Kosh-Agach to the springs. For visitors, the protected area has three enclosed bathhouses with stove heating, an open-air pool, several bathing pools and cabins for overnight stays, also heated by stoves.