Lake Ritsa

In Abkhazia, there is a stunningly beautiful Lake Ritsa, which was formed as a result of a very strong earthquake that struck the mountain.

Ritsa Lake in length reaches almost 2.5 kilometers, the width varies from 250 to 870 meters, and the average depth is about 60 meters. The water in the mountain lake is quite cool and even on the hottest day of August rarely exceeds 20 ° C. 6 rivers feed the lake, and only one follows - Yupshara. The water surface of the lake is covered with ice only in the most severe winters, and even then the thickness of the ice is only 1-5 centimeters. In winter, there is also the most transparent water and visibility is 10, in spring and summer due to the flowering of algae and meltwater, the visibility is only 1 meter.

The beauty of the lake was chosen by the leaders of the USSR, on the shores of Ritsa there were cottages of Stalin and Brezhnev, which you can easily get into and learn a lot of interesting things from the guide. Here is preserved, old furniture of those times when the leaders of the country rested here. The territory of the lake with adjacent mountains and forests is the property of the Ritsinsky reserve. On all sides of the lake, mountains up to 3200 meters high surround the lake, on which snow lies all year round.

Around Lake Ritsa there are many legends, because 300 years ago there was not even a hint of a lake. But they all talk about a powerful earthquake, because of which part of the Przegishkhwa mountain ( 2222 m ) collapsed and blocked the Lashipse river. Research by scientists confirms this version. For the first time, the lake was mapped in 1865, but this location was very approximate, and the contours of the lake were incorrect. Only in 1914 did the Krymsko-Kavkaz mountain club organize an expedition to draw up an accurate map of the area and map the lake according to its geographical location.