What is the name of the pink lake. Mysterious places of the planet - pink lake hiller

It would seem, what else can surprise the mainland, in which almost everything is so unusual? But Lake Hillier with bright pink water is an unsolved miracle of stunning Australian nature.

It is located in the Rechersh archipelago, on its Middle (Middle), at south coast Australia. Lake Hillier is salty and shallow, and the water in it has a juicy dense. When you fly low enough on an airplane, you get a stunning view worthy of a surrealist artist’s brush: in the middle of the island lies a bright pink oval with smooth edges, framed by a white “frame” of sea salt and dark green eucalyptus forest. The pink expanse of Lake Hillier is often compared to a giant bubblegum or glittery cake icing.

History of a miracle

Pink Lake in Australia was first mentioned in 1802 in the notes of Matthew Flinders. This famous British hydrographer and navigator made a stop at Middle Island during his voyage to Sydney.

Then whalers and hunters who lived off the southern coast of the mainland in the 30-40s of the 19th century told about this lake.

At the beginning of the last century, they decided to mine salt here, but after six years, the activity was stopped. And in the 50s, they conducted the first scientific research on an amazing color.

Now Lake Hillier, Australia, is visited by numerous tourists who want to see for themselves that it really is as pink as in the photographs.

Interesting fact

Water looks bright pink in any amount, even in a small vessel, regardless of the angle of view.

Imagine sunset as the orange sun slowly sinks into the clear sky in a soft pink Australian sky. rose water!

A little information

The dimensions of the reservoir are quite small - about 600 meters long and 200 meters wide. Amazing pink water separates from the ocean sand strip covered with dense eucalyptus forest. Around the lake naturally appeared white ring sea ​​salt for added contrast. Approaching the lake is quite difficult due to the dense ring that surrounds the lake. But, nevertheless, you can walk here and even swim in salty pink water!

Why is it pink?

Scientists believed that Lake Hillier owes its rich pink color to the special Dunaliella salina, which, in very salty water, emit a bright red pigment. Similar algae have been found in other pink lakes around the world.

Samples of Lake Hillier were carefully studied, but no traces of the alleged algae were found. Research has been carried out by various scientists and different time, so there is no doubt about the reliability of the result. The color of the water is still a mystery.

Australia loves to amaze the imagination with such things, so the pink Lake Hillier has taken its rightful place among the living wonders of the local nature, along with the bright red Shark Harbor, the pinnacles desert of The Pinnacles in national park Nambung, the Bungle Bungles, Kangaroo Island, the Simpsons Desert and the Great Barrier Reef.

In former times, Lake Retba was a lagoon that was connected to the ocean by a narrow channel. But the Atlantic surf, which gradually washed up the sand, covered the channel, and the lagoon turned into a rather deep salt Lake. In the 1970s, a period of drought began in Senegal, as a result of which the reservoir became very shallow.
It was then that Lake Retba acquired its unusual shade. The reason for the unique color of the water is that cyanobacteria live in the lake - the oldest microorganisms that appeared on Earth 3.5 billion years ago. Surprisingly, apart from them, there is no other organic life in this saturated saline solution. The concentration of salt in Lake Retba is almost 1.5 times higher than in the Dead Sea - 380 grams per liter. In Pink Lake, like the Dead Sea, it is very difficult to drown. You can safely swim on the surface of the water while reading a book or newspaper.

The color of the water of the Senegalese lake can change its shade from light pink to brown. The saturation of the color depends on the time of day, on cloudiness, and especially on the wind, since when strong wind the cyanobacterium is activated and produces more of an enzyme that turns the water pink.

An unusual lake lies northeast of the peninsula Cape Green, at the extreme southern tip of which is the city of Dakar. Get to international Airport Dakar is possible only with a transfer, there are no direct flights from Russia and Ukraine. Flight options include Iberia via Madrid, Lufthansa via Frankfurt, Air France via Paris, Alitalia via Milan and North African carriers Royal Air Maroc via Casablanca, Air Algerie via Algiers and Tunisair via Tunisia.

Two-kilometer coastline Lake Retba is densely strewn with flat-bottomed boats, very similar to Russian ones. But they don’t fish on them, they don’t go to the neighboring village and they don’t carry hay. On Pink Lake, boats serve only to extract salt.

It is today that people extract salt, standing up to their necks in water - 20 years ago they moved along the lake without swimming facilities- the water level in it reached the waist. And due to the extraction of a huge amount of salt (about 25 thousand tons per year), the depth of the lake is rapidly increasing.

Every morning, dozens of local men, taking the necessary equipment, swim to the middle of the lake and climb into the very salt water. They break the salt deposits at the bottom of the reservoir with special hooks, and then they scoop up the salt with shovels and load it into boats. A high concentration of saline solution can corrode the skin in just a few tens of minutes, as a result of which hard-healing ulcers form on the body. To prevent this, before getting into the boat, the miners rub themselves with shea butter, which is extracted from the fruits of the tallow tree.

When a pirogue full of salt lands on the shore, the men's mission ends there - the salt from the boats is unloaded by the women. They carry basins on their heads loaded with wet salt, weighing more than 25 kg, and pour it out on the shore of the lake to dry. Initially, the salt extracted from the reservoir has a dark gray color, but under the influence of tropical sunlight, it gradually begins to turn white. In each pile of salt is a plate on which the number of the owner is indicated. Here she can wait a year or two for wholesale buyers.
Salt, which is mined here, is exported to African countries and, as an exotic product, even to Europe. Basically, the inhabitants of Senegal are content with salt, which they received from sea ​​water. But sometimes in local restaurants they serve fish baked in salt from Lake Retba.

The workers live here, on the shores of Pink Lake, in a small village, in shacks built from improvised materials: polyethylene film, reeds, sheet iron and old car tires. They come here to work from neighboring countries Africa and from the Senegalese provinces, but remain for no more than a few years due to harsh working conditions. However, by the standards of this country, they make good money.

Due to the active extraction of salt, Lake Retba is getting shallower every year. Over the past ten years, the area of ​​​​the Senegalese lake has decreased by almost three times, and if measures are not taken in the near future to protect this natural object, it may disappear from the face of the earth forever.

The Pink Lake of Senegal (also known as Lake Retba) is not a very famous attraction in Africa, but still quite extraordinary.

The local population from the Wolof ethnic group prefers to call it Lake Retba. But we know it as Pink Lake. Again, as in the case of the Blue Grotto, the lake owes its name to its color, which is unnatural for a reservoir.

This is not jelly, this is Pink Lake

And here there is just something to be surprised at, the color of the water varies from pink to blood red. This phenomenon is associated with the presence in the water of a huge number of halophilic archaea of ​​the genus Halobacterium. Translated into an understandable language, there are a lot of specific bacteria in the water, which paint the lake in such incredible colors. Especially bright colors are characteristic of the lake during the dry period.

Pink Lake on the map

• geographic coordinates 14.838150, -17.234862
• distance from the capital of Senegal Dakar about 25 km
• the distance to the nearest airport of the same Dakar is about 30 km

The history of the emergence of the Pink Lake is quite earthly and sacrifices with abundant blood flow were not carried out here. Initially, it was an ordinary lagoon connected to the ocean by a small channel. But, over time, the ocean surf tightened the channel with sand and thereby blocked the communication of the lagoon with " big water". And that is not all. So the lake would have remained ordinary and inconspicuous, if one day, during a severe drought, they had not become very shallow. Then locals salt began to be mined in it, and by the most in a simple way, almost like on the territory of the Uyuni salt marsh, collecting it from the bottom of the lake. Over time, bacteria began to develop, which painted Lake Retba in abnormal colors. As a result, we have another attraction.

Lake Retba in numbers

• Surface area about 3 km2
• Maximum depth up to 3 meters

It is noteworthy that local residents who extract salt are in the water for 6-7 hours. This is insanely high for such a rich brine solution. But to protect the skin from burns to workers, a special karite remedy made from shea butter helps. Rubbing it into the skin, people are able to stay in the water for a long time. Hard workers live right next to the lake in unpresentable shacks. There is not much entertainment here. Except maybe boat trips, a short swim and jeep rides in the local environs. You can buy souvenirs that locals sell, usually carrying them in baskets on their heads.

• The lake has been final destination famous Paris-Dakar rally
• The salt content in the waters of Pink Lake reaches 40%
• Do not stay in water for more than 10 minutes, as this is fraught with chemical burns.
• There are no living creatures (no fish, no algae), except for the aforementioned bacteria, in the lake (try to survive in a reservoir where there are almost 400 grams of salt per liter of water)
• Salt content in Lake Retba exceeds that of the famous Dead Sea in Israel
• it is almost impossible to drown in the lake, since the density of its water is very high and, accordingly, the buoyancy force does not allow you to sink to the bottom
• salt has been mined here since the 70s of the last century

Pink Lake in pictures

Our planet is teeming with many mystical, unknown, terrible and unusual beautiful places. Red and pink lakes are named after the color of their waters. Most often they have shades of red: pink, crimson, scarlet and closer to orange. Many of them are dangerous and inspire feelings of fear and horror.

Scientists say that the color of the lake is due to microorganisms that live in their waters.

Creepy Red Lake "Natron» (Lake Natron) in Tanzania turns all living things into stone

In Africa, on the border with Kenya, in Tanzania there is sinister lake"Narton". Everyone who touches him turns to stone. So far, these are just careless birds.

Why do they become petrified? It's simple: the ideal alkalinity pH is from 9 to 10.5 and salt keeps the corpses in the state that you see in the photo.

But the lake cannot be called dead - it is a haven for millions of pink flamingos. Birds come here to breed. This is an ideal habitat for them: predators bypass this lake, and blue-green algae with red pigments are good for food.

How to get to Lake Natron? Kilimanjaro Airport is 50 km from Arusha. And from Arusha another 240 km. There are no special tours to this lake, but there is an item on the list of the tour to the Oldoinyo-Lengai volcano: a visit to Lake Natron. On its own, of course, it will be much more expensive. And you can also see the red lake during a safari in national park Serengeti national park) or Great rift valley(Great Rift Valley).

Bloody Red Lagoon of Colorado in Bolivia

Another reddish lake Laguna Colorado is located in Bolivia, in the town of Eduardo Avaroa on the Altiplano. This state park with salt lake. The color of the water is given by borax deposits and some algae.

The lake is inhabited by the same pink flamingos. Crowds of tourists from all over the world come to see these beautiful birds and the no less beautiful shallow lake.

How to get to the Red Lagoon? You can get from the city of Tupitsa or Uyuni by jeep (300 km.). The place can be visited as part of the Andes tour.

Koyashskoye mineral lake in Crimea

Lake Koyashskoye is located near the Borisovka resort, in the Opuk Bay, in the Cimmerian steppes.

To see the beauty of the lake. Its rich pink color and whimsical stone structures in salt crystals it is worth coming to see in July-August. The water recedes and the salt is shown outward, settling on everything that it meets in its path.

How to get (get there)? From the side of Feodosia, get to Borisovka and along the dirt road - in your own transport. On the public from Kerch to Maryevka and then on foot 7km.

Red salt lake Sasyk-Sivash in Crimea

And this is another lake on the Crimean peninsula, not far from the resort of Evpatoria. Lake Sasyk-Sivash has a pink color due to the evaporation of mineral salt. During evaporation, many microalgae carotenoids appear.

The healing properties of salt have attracted tourists for a long time. It has a high content of magnesium and potassium, bromine and calcium.

Another bizarre moment with Lake Sasyk-Sivash is the “boiling of the lake”. This miracle is understandable - underwater fountains (griffins) are to blame.

How to get to Lake Sasyk-Sivash? It is possible by electric train from Evpatoria to Saki. Then take a bus to Pribrezhnoye and walk 2 km. or by car.

Salt Chokraskoye Lake is located not far from the village of Kurortnoe on Kerch Peninsula. It, like all of the above, has the property of water turning pinkish-red. The reason for this is unicellular algae.

Tourists tend to come here not only to stare at the lake, but also for healing mud- heal.

How to get there? By bus from Kerch to the village of Kurortnoye and 2 km. on foot.

pink lakes generally predominate in Australia. There is a large accumulation of these unusual water areas. Lake Hillier is at the very large island Middle Island in Western Australia.

How to get here? The problem is that the island is not inhabited, and you can see it from the window of an airplane. Although the Australian travel companies offer boat trips.

Lake Retba in Senegal

Pink Lake Retba is located near the capital of Dakar in Senegal.

Pink lake in Altai

Or rather, not one pink lake, but two. The first lake Bursol or Buturlinskoye is located in the Slavogorodsky district Altai Territory(Bursol village), 500 km. from Barnaul in the steppe. And the second one is called Raspberry Lake, located 400 km away. from the capital of Altai, next to the village of the same name Raspberry Lake.

These salty pink lakes beautiful place for rest and prevention treatment of many diseases. It is clear that the only industry here is salt mining. The pink color of the lakes is due to Artemia and nauplii.

It is better to get on your own transport or from Branaul by bus: to Raspberry Lake - to the village of Mikhailovskoye, to Buturlinskoye - to Slavgorod.

Why is the water pink?

This question comes to mind in the first place, it is asked by almost every traveler who has visited this anomalous place. But the answer has not yet been found. Unlike other colored lakes in the world, such as Retba in Senegal and the salt waters in San Francisco Bay, the origin of Lake Hillier's pink color has not been unequivocally proven.

At first it was believed that the color was the result of paint created by organisms Dunaliella and Halobacteria that live in salt water. Another hypothesis says that the pink color is due to red halophilic bacteria. It was assumed that the reason for the pink color of the water is a combination of a certain salinity of the water and specific microorganisms. But tests conducted in 1950 did not confirm these assumptions. In subsequent years, a number of studies were also carried out, but the mystery of Lake Hiller remained unsolved, seriously disturbing the minds of scientists.

Lake location

Lake Hillier is located on the very edge of the Middle Island, it is separated from the ocean only by a small strip of eucalyptus trees surrounding the reservoir from all sides. The evergreen trees provide a great contrast to the landscape, especially against the backdrop of the pink lake.

As for the size of the lake, it cannot be said that it is large. Its width is about 600 meters. Due to its oval shape, the lake is often compared to a fabulous cake with delicious pink icing.

History of Pink Lake

The first mention of Lake Hillier dates back to 1802. British navigator and hydrographer Matthew Flinders stopped on Sredny Island and noticed unusual lake on the way to Sydney.

In the years 1820-1840, sealers and whalers stopped on the island, and at the beginning of the 20th century they began to extract salt from rose water. But the resource quickly dried up, and after 6 years, salt mining was stopped. Since then, the lake has not been used for industrial purposes.

Legend of Lake Hillier

This mysterious place have their own, very beautiful legend explaining the pink color of water. It is known to a few sailors and rare travelers.

In the 17th century, in the waters surrounding the island, the ship fell into a severe storm and sank. The only surviving sailor was thrown onto uninhabited lands. The fight against the elements severely wounded him. Because of the broken limbs, every movement brought pain to the sailor, and the extraction of food became torture. A few weeks later, mad with pain, loneliness and hopelessness, he exclaimed: “I will sell my soul to the devil if this nightmare stops!” Then a man came out from the shade of a nearby tree with two jugs in his hands: one was blood, and the other was milk. He walked slowly to the island's small inland lake and said, “The blood will help you forget what pain is. Milk will relieve you of hunger. All you have to do is take a dip in these waters.” After that, the stranger poured the contents of the jars into the lake, which caused it to change color. The sailor, who thought he had lost his mind, slowly entered the suspicious pink water and dived, and when he surfaced, the strange stranger was nowhere to be found. To the surprise of the traveler, there was no trace of fractures and hunger. Later, pirates landed on this island and captured a poor sailor. In the future, the filibusters were alerted by the fact that the prisoner did not feel pain and did not need food. Considering this a bad sign, superstitious pirates threw the sailor overboard, not believing in his mystical story healing. By the way, the original name of the lake “Hiller” is absolutely consonant in pronunciation English word"Healer", which translates as "Healer".