Salt deserts of Crimea

Sergey Anashkevich aka aquatek-filips writes: "Despite the very difficult time and acute events taking place, I will continue to show the incredibly beautiful and diverse Crimea and will talk about the best places of the peninsula. Today, in my short story, there will again be places that tourists rarely visit — the desert landscapes of the eastern Crimea.

And although there are no deserts and semi-deserts as natural zones in Crimea, there is a completely different feeling in these places. However, these deserts are salt..."

(11 photos in total)

1. Where did these huge flat areas in Crimea come from, stretching to the horizon and covered with a layer of salt? All these are salt lakes that dry up completely or partially in the hot summer months — Tobechik, Koyash, Chokrash, Uzunlar and others

2. But even if some lakes do not dry up completely, the water level in them is so low that the salt literally "climbs out of the water"

3. For example, in this picture from Lake Koyash, taken in August, the water level is only one centimeter in some places. And in the deepest place — 10 centimeters.

4. On the shores of these amazing salt lakes-deserts, you can find amazing drawings created by water retreating under the pressure of summer heat

5. But gradually the salt is blown up by the winds, and those places that had an even white color a month ago are covered with cracked dried silt… And the wind blew salt for many kilometers around, covering the surrounding steppes and fields with it

6. Cracks of the Crimean desert. Koyash Lake in July

7. Perfectly smooth infinity

8. Self-portrait

9. The viscous surface of the dried-up Tobechik lake. From here, the salt has already moved with the help of the wind to the surrounding steppes, exposing a layer of medicinal clay

10. The desert heat of Tobechik

11. ... and someone never got to the saving shore ....