Озеро-родник Сарва

Sarva Spring Lake


Useful Information

Location: East of Sarva, Nurimanov district, Bashkortostan.
From Ufa M5 east, turn left to Iglino, Krasnaya Gorka, turn right on local road to Sarva.
(55.237476, 57.065539)
Open: no restrictions.
[2021]
Fee: free.
[2021]
Classification: KarstVauclusian Spring
Light: n/a
Dimension: L=60 m, W=30 m, D=38 m. Y=1000 l/s, T=5 °C.
Guided tours: self guided
Photography: allowed
Accessibility:  
Bibliography:  
Address: Sarva Spring Lake.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History


Description

The karst spring Озеро-родник Сарва (Sarva Spring Lake) is an exceptional blue pot, which is almost 40 m deep. The rims of the lake are very steep, almost vertical, obviously formed by the collapse of a water filled cave system. This is the spring of the river Sarva which is 17 km long and flows into the Saldybash river near Ustye Saldybash. This river flows into the Ufa river in the southern outskirts of the capital Ufa.

The spring is know for its beautiful blueish tint, but the color can change depending on the weather. The water is very clear and its possible to see the floor up to 12 m deep. The temperature is 5 °C year round, so it is far too cold for swimming. Cave divers research the spring for the cave system behind. The karst spring is a hydrological natural monument.

In 2006 the “Sarva” LLC was founded which is bottling the water as drinking water. This is rather problematic as karst water is very fragile and there is always the danger of polluted water reappearing almost unfiltered after only a few hours or days. Fortunately such events are unlikely, because the area around Sarva is very sparsely populated. And the catchment area of the spring is not populated at all, there are no settlements in that direction for several tens of kilometers. The landscape is hill country with deep, canyon-like dry valleys.