Where is Imandra Lake? Lake Imandra: description, photo

In any part of the world, in any country and in any region on earth, you can find wonderful and amazing in its unique beauty of natural places. Here we will talk about the most beautiful corner, located near the city of Monchegorsk.

This lake Imandra (Murmansk region). The article will deal with an unusual and beautiful landscape, created by the nature of these places.

What else are remarkable, besides the beauty of landscapes, these edges? At one time, at the very beginning of the 50s, the largest hydraulic structures were built here and a reservoir, the Nivsky cascade of hydroelectric power stations, was built.

A little bit about the Kola Peninsula

The location of the Kola Peninsula is the Murmansk region, northwest of the European part of Russia. Its banks are washed by the White and Barents seas.
The most important attraction of the peninsula is amazing nature. There is everything: mountains, lakes, rivers, the sea and even the desert.

Occupies a peninsula of 100 thousand square meters. Kilometers of area. On its expanses one can see many amazing and beautiful in terms of natural beauties. Among them is an amazing fairy-tale lake, which will be discussed below. It is located in the central part of the peninsula.

Lake Imandra: photo, location, discovery

This fairy-tale lake is the largest on the Kola Peninsula. Its area is 876 square meters. Kilometers. The shape of the reservoir is very elongated from north to south (the length is 109 kilometers, the width is about 19 kilometers). This area belongs to the Lapland Reserve.

This wonderful water body was discovered in 1880 by an expedition of geologist NV Kudryavtsev. The peculiarity of the lake lies in the fact that over its water surface there are many surprisingly exotic, various forms of fairy-tale islets. There are more than 140 in total, and the largest of them is the Yerm-Island (or Imandra Babinskaya), the area of which is about 26 square kilometers. Kilometers.

Description of Imandra Lake

The city of Monchegorsk itself is located on the shore of the lake. Lumbolka, and on the other side is Monche. This is the lip of Imandra Lake. It has a rather complex lobed shape with a large number of bays and bays (they are very convenient for parking), as well as a large number of small islands. The total area of the reservoir is 876 square meters. Km. The biggest depth of the Imandra lake is 67 meters (average -19 meters).

The reservoir is divided into three parts:

• Northern - Big Imandra: an area of 328 square meters. Km, length - about 55 km. And the width is within 3-5 km .;
• Central - Yokostrovskaya Imandra: an area of 351 square meters. Km, the width is about 12 km, the width of the narrowest point is 700 meters;
• West - Imandra Babinskaya: an area of 133 square meters. Km.

The lake is amazingly clean and clear water. The bottom is visible even from the 11-meter depth. The water supply is mostly rain and snow. In its fresh waves are a variety of fish: perch, vendace, salmon, grayling, pike, trout, whitefish.
The lake freezes in early November and opens only in the middle of summer (June-July).

What are the localities here?

Imandra (lake) - a paradise of the Kola Peninsula. In these beautiful places are located such settlements as the settlement of Imandra with the same name, small settlements Zasheyk, Tik-Guba, Khibiny, Afrikandy and the city of Monchegorsk.

The tributaries and source of the lake

A total of about 20 rivers flow into the lake, among which there are Pecha, Goltsovka, Malaya Belaya and Kurkienok. The largest tributaries of Imandra: White, Monche and Pirenga.
The source is the Niva River.

Natural places of interest

The territory of Imandra attracts the attention of many tourists with its amazingly beautiful nature. You can get on the water (on a yacht or boat) on the east coast, crossing from one island to another, and already there to climb the peaks of Yumechorr (height 1096 meters) or Goltsovka (altitude 847 meters) of the Khibiny mountains.

In addition, Imandra - a lake, chosen by lovers of kite surfing - a modern sport. What it is? A kite is a kite attached to a paraglider.

What is this sport? A man stands on the ground and, holding on to the lines, tries to hold the kite in his hands. Catching the rising streams of air, he gets up on the board (snowboard snow, skateboard, mountainboard, wakeboard or rollers) and feels himself flying. They say that the impressions are inexpressible. And the more the kite itself, the more free and exciting the "flight".

Sport and tourism in Monchegorsk

This reservoir is famous for the competitions held here.
Imandra is a lake on the ice of which an international 100-kilometer race is held annually in April under the very same kites and similar sails.

Also developed here are sports such as kayaking, rowing slalom, freestyle, kayaking on rough water and high-speed descent in rough water.

There are also tourist routes along the rivers (2nd, 3rd and 4th degrees of complexity), flowing into the lake. Imandra, and sports alloys.

For tourists, one-, two- and multi-day walks on yachts, kayaks and other types of water transport are organized here. There are for this wonderful modern tourist vessels: catamarans, rafts, kayaks and kayaks polyethylene.

This is a wonderful and convenient place for winter entertainment. Where the Imandra Lake is located, the kayaking season lasts from May to October.

Khibiny Mountains

Khibiny Mountains - a large, but not very high (up to 1202 m) mountain range, located at 150 km. North of the Arctic Circle. The marshy tundra borders on it in the north and south, and in the west and east of it are the lakes Imandra and Umbozero.

These peaks represent a number of mountain plateaus, which are dissected by deep passes and gorges with a large number of precipices.

Imandra (the lake) and its surrounding territories attract attention even in connection with the close location of Khibin to them.

Origin of the name of the island

Until now, the origin of the name of the lake has not been fully revealed.

Such an unusual name at the island, A. Kazakov assumed, came from the language of the peoples of Saami origin and means "a lake with a complex coastline configuration, with many islands."

There is also an assumption (the opinion of NN Poppe) that the "Imandra" has a common root with the word "Imatra". It seems that this is a very ancient name, and of non-native origin.

The Lopar local name for the lake is Iveriavr, but it has long since disappeared.

There is one more assumption (SB Vasiliev) is that if we take into account the transport significance of the lake in the daily life of the lappers mainly in the winter season, it can be assumed that the lake was first called Innmander. In translation it is either "ice continent", or "ice space" (from the side "inn" - "ice" and "mandera" - "mainland"). And only later it began to sound more harmonious for Russian settlers.

In conclusion - the legend

Imandra is the name of the daughter of a hunter who lived on the shore of a small lake. The daughter was hunting with her father. She was beautiful and quick, and her laughter awakened sleepy mountains. A young hunter who lived on the other side of the mountains once heard her ringing laughter. He went to this sound and, seeing Imandra, was fascinated by her beauty. He forgot that the mountains have deep gorges, because he could not tear his gaze from the girl.

The young man fell into one of the abysses, and Imandra begged the gods to revive this young man, but they were silent. Then she often cried when she came to the ravine, and one day she saw that one of the rocks turned into her beloved's face, but it was still stone. Imandra desperately rushed to the lake, which immediately split and became very large.