Lake Talkov Kamen

Talkov Kamen is a lake in a flooded quarry in the Sysert municipal district of Sverdlovsk Oblast, four kilometers west of the town of Sysert, on the spurs of the Chernovskoy ridge. The lake lies within the Bazhovskiye Mesta nature park and since 1983 has held the status of a historical-mining-geological, mineralogical and hydrological natural monument covering 89.4 hectares.

History

From the late 19th century, talc was mined at the site, with workers cutting into talc schists for the needs of Ural industry. Mining finally stopped in 1927, after a larger deposit, Staraya Linza, was discovered nearby and the old workings became unprofitable. The abandoned quarry gradually filled with groundwater and turned into a lake. A memorial plaque on its shore describes Talkov Kamen as a historical-revolutionary monument, stating that Sysert workers held secret meetings here in 1905-1907 and that more than twenty different minerals occur in the surrounding rock.

Nature and geology

The shores are formed by whitish-green talc schist walls left from the sides of the former quarry, rising sheer above the water for several dozen meters. The lake has an irregular, heart-like shape: about 100 meters long, 40 to 80 meters wide, and up to 32 meters deep. The water is clear and weakly mineralized, giving good underwater visibility, while below a depth of six meters the bottom is cluttered with trees that fell into the quarry. The clarity and considerable depth have made the lake popular with divers.

Legends

Several local legends are attached to the abandoned quarry. In one, a watchman once saw a "white woman" emerging from an adit in the quarry's rock wall. Another holds that a rich collection of porcelain lies at the bottom of the lake. There are also stories of evil spirits guarding hidden treasure at the bottom; such tales are common around many abandoned mine workings in the Urals and are not confirmed facts.

Getting there

Talkov Kamen lies within the Bazhovskiye Mesta nature park, and the route to the lake runs through the park from either Yekaterinburg or Sysert. Visitors usually leave their cars at a parking area near the park entrance, from where a marked hiking trail about two kilometers long leads to the lake. Admission to the park and parking are typically paid.