Late autumn, gloomy skies and drizzling cold rain - you can't imagine the best time to travel to the mysterious South Ural Lake Shaitanka. No really. Only in such an entourage can one get the right impression about him. Unless, of course, he became an eyewitness to one of the miracles that are associated with this unusual reservoir
If you accidentally stumble upon Shaitanka while walking through the woods, then you may not pay attention to her at all. The swamp is like a swamp. Muddy shores dotted with diseased trees and bushes, rotting deadwood all around, moss and ferns.
It becomes interesting when you learn that the depth of this "puddle", according to the "Encyclopedia of Ashinsky District", is 200 meters! It is possible that the lake has not one bottom, but several. Rumor generally claims that the Shaitan is bottomless. Which, of course, is unlikely, but even without this, the properties attributed to it make a strong impression
The lake is located at the western border of the Chelyabinsk region, just south of the city of Asha, on the outskirts of the village of Uk. If you look at it from the air, then in shape it is an almost even circle of very tiny diameter. All because the reservoir is of karst origin. That is why it is so deep. It is even more interesting that, according to some information, down there, the Shaitanka is connected to a giant underground water system.
At times, under the weight of the geoplatform, which “floats” on it, like on a water mattress, rotten muddy-peat water splashes out through the “neck” of the Shaitanka. They say that the water seems to boil, evaporating the stench, overflows the banks and flows into the Uk River nearby. It is clear that in the old days this phenomenon was associated with evil spirits, therefore the name was invented as ominous: "Shaitan", consonant with "Satan", is translated from the Turkic "devil" or "devil".
There is a legend that once upon a time there was a settlement on the banks of the Shaitanka, and the once overflowed swamp swallowed it up. And as if until now its bowels from time to time spit out smoothly hewn logs to the surface. We involuntarily remembered this when we were on the shore: in the middle of the lake, either the trunk of a fallen tree was floating, or a really log. This place seems completely deaf and gloomy, although the federal highway is buzzing nearby. You involuntarily shudder even from the knocking of a woodpecker.
Among the inhabitants of the village of Uk, this place is notorious. Photo by the author - The energy is bad there, it is better not to stay for a long time, - the saleswoman of the local store warned us. The devil's lake still has traces of human presence, we even found a fishing slingshot. But not a single fire pit. This means that no one stays here until dark, and even more so for the night. It soon became clear why.
Communication with the villagers led us to the Mirasovs' house. This is a large farming family with five children. Spouses Alik and Elena keep cattle and cultivate a large area of arable land on the site of the former village of Tverdyshevo, which in turn grew out of an inn and a station on the Siberian tract, where travelers changed horses and a convoy. Before the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, life was still in full swing here! - As soon as we began to plow the land, this is what climbed out of there, - with these words Elena poured on the table a whole bunch of old copper and silver coins, crosses, rings and incense.
Most of the coins date back to the early 19th century. Many towards the end and middle of the 18th. The oldest is already 1709. There is also some incomprehensible money with a coat of arms, where the shield is supported by two sables. Maybe these are the famous "Demidov rubles"? One is not a coin at all, but a large silver medal with someone's curly profile.
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- Our section of the tract, from Lemez to Sim, was known for the fact that robber bands were operating here, - Elena continued. - Wealthy travelers were ruthlessly killed, and their corpses and other evidence (carts and carriages) were drowned in Shaitanka. How many of these remains are there, no one knows.
Her son Roman added:
- After the Great Patriotic War, ammunition was also drowned there. Whole wagons. You can still see the embankment left over from the railroad tracks. My classmate once found a machine gun there. Without a barrel, it is true, but the mechanism worked. Perhaps, the lake's bad reputation is connected with these events. Rumor has it that at night they see "water" and "mermaids" near him.
And Elena remembered this case:
- Once, hunters came to us, set up a night ambush on Tverdyshevo. An unusually thick fog descended on that night. In the morning the hunters came and said: "Wow, you have a place here!" It turned out that at night they saw some strange figures, like ghosts. We ourselves did not see anything, but as if we felt someone's presence. It seems to me that these images arise from the past. There are cases when, for example, a fallen tree is photographed, but in the picture it is whole (this phenomenon is called "chronomirazh" - Ed.). There was also a case: at the memorial to the victims of the Ashina disaster, people were photographed, and someone's face appeared in the photo. It seems to me that there is something similar here.
For the sake of fairness, it must be said that Shaitanka is not the only reservoir in these places with unusual properties. In hard-to-reach corners, where you cannot drive up by car, you can admire, for example, the source, which, like a geyser, periodically throws up streams of water, even though it is not thermal. Or try water from a very salty spring. And the river Kremenka is famous for its magical cosmetic properties due to the high content of silicon in the water. “You will wash your feet in it, and the heels become soft, like a newborn's,” the villagers assure.
The banks of the river are rich in healing blue clay. The residents of Ashina are sure that all these reservoirs and springs, some of which are hidden in caves, have not just crawled out: somewhere deep underground there is an intricate hydraulic system. And who knows, maybe that's why this place was chosen … by aliens? Nauseous from UFOs Well, the Ashins have not yet seen the aliens themselves, but they have seen enough of all kinds of "plates".
- Why go far: just a month ago, I saw a luminous ball over the river for three nights in a row. It will hang in one place, then it will move. Then he comes back and turns all the time, - said Vera Sherysheva, Elena Mirasova's mother.
- And my friend and I walked down the street in the evening in August or September. We look - as if a star, only much larger in size, - Roman joined. - We think, what stars can there be at this early? And the sky is cloudy. “And after that, both of them had pain in their eyes, as if they were looking at electric welding, and the temperature jumped to 40 degrees, although there were no symptoms of a cold or flu.
Alla Asseeva, a teacher of OBZh of the Uk school and her relatives, in 2010, sitting by the fire at night, witnessed how, at first glance, an ordinary satellite appeared from behind the mountains. But then he began to very quickly approach the observers and a few hundred meters from them, without reducing speed, changed his trajectory by 90 degrees and disappeared behind the horizon with the speed of lightning. But she, like dozens of other Ukchan people, was most clearly remembered by a case of 20 years ago. That night, a cigar-shaped object was moving along the Uk River and fumbling along the ground with a beam.
- As if I was looking for something, - Alla Asseeva clarified. - Moreover, the beam was strange: at first it expanded in a cone, like an ordinary one, and then again narrowed to a point. Many of those who saw this UFO at close range then suffered from headaches, nausea and indigestion.
Later, exactly the same (or rather the same) object flew near the closed city of Trekhgorny (80 km from Asha in a straight line). Alla saw the most ordinary UFOs - that is, "saucers". Two at once. And her husband Nikolai once observed a transparent flying object through which the moon was visible. When, upon our return, we turned to the Chelyabinsk group of the Cosmopoisk research association for a comment, its coordinator Andrei Lyubushkin told us that the group knew about the legends around Lake Shaitanka. But they cannot comment on them, because the study of the reservoir is scheduled only for the spring of next year. After it, all dots will be placed over the i.
Vladimir Deryagin, geographer, lake scientist:
- At one time, the Limnological and Ecological Center of the ChSPU studied Lake Shaitanka, which is sometimes called Black because of the color of the water. This is a truly unique karst reservoir, in cross-section resembling a glass with broth, the walls of which are, as it were, covered with a layer of fat collected on the surface. "Fat" in this case is a peat float, so the shore of the lake is so shaky, it can be pierced with a stick. The maximum depth that was recorded is 17.5 meters. Today it is the deepest karst lake in the Chelyabinsk region. Bottom sediments are very viscous and dense clay.
I admit that underground water horizons may exist below, but that the waters of Shaitan Lake do not communicate with them, this is absolutely certain. The fact is that the analysis of the bottom water showed a very high concentration of manganese (and not only), it is practically a manganese ore. But on the surface, the water is clean, you can drink it. If there was a connection with groundwater, we would not have found such an amount of manganese. The delusions and inventions associated with Shaitanka originate in the literary anthology "Land of Enchantments", where G. Barmasov conscientiously collected and generalized them. From there, without any critical understanding, they migrated to the press and the "Encyclopedia of Ashinsky District". I understand the desire of the Ashins to consider their land unique. He is unique, I lived there for three years, I know, but I am against lies.
