Chuysky tract and its sights: from Mayma to Kamlak. Gorny Altai: Arzhan-Suu Silver Spring Arzhan-Suu Spring

Mineral springs - a place of worship for the local population
Address: Arzhan-Suu, Maiminsky district, Chagan-Uzun
Travel by private vehicle, walking.

Arzhan Suu -<Золотой ключик>, the water contains silver and copper that improve metabolic processes in the body. The largest souvenir market in the Altai Mountains, a cafe, a bridge across the river. Katun to the Turquoise Katun tourist complex under construction and the Tavdinsky caves (bus - 50 rubles, car - 25 rubles, pedestrian - 5 rubles).

Tavdinsky (from some sources TALDINSKY) caves are located on the left bank of the river. Katun near the village. Lime. There are several caves in the rock, the passages are branched, from the lower tiers you can get to the upper ones. Cave holes stretch for almost 3 km. Relatively small grottoes (the largest is 150m long), through corridors and arches. Excursions are held in the caves in summer. The shortest tour takes about two hours, you will be shown the "Dragon's Nostrils" caves, there is also "The Fifth Point of the Dragon", the "Fools" cave and, very popular with women, the "Wishing Stone".

The Arzhan-Suu spring on the Chuisky tract, 7 km from the village of Manzherok, has been declared a state natural monument. Staying here has become a good tradition for the guests of Gorny Altai.
It has several names: "Arzhap-Suu", "Driver's", "Golden Key". "Arzhan-Suu" literally means "mineral water" (suu means water in Altai).

The source is located in the lower part of the steep side of the river valley. Katun in the extreme western spur of the Iolgo ridge. Here the spur almost comes close to the river bed.
The climate is quite mild in the spring area. The average temperature in January is -13 degrees C, in July 18 degrees C. Hair dryers often blow. The average wind speed in the winter months is 4-5 m/s. In summer - 1-2 m / s. The annual amount of precipitation is about 500 mm.
The source is descending, scattered type. Water flows out of cracks in bedrock in several places and after 20-30 m forms a single stream.
The source water was assigned to the hydrocarbonate class of the calcium-magnesium group: In addition, the following were found in the source water: silicic acid (12.2 mg / cubic dm), strontium (0.34 mg / cubic dm), zinc ( 0.12 mg / cubic dm).
In the 90s, the Tomsk NIIKiF made an attempt to classify the waters of the source according to the content of organic matter (Corg. 4.1 - 14.4 mg / cubic dm) to the VIII group of mineral waters, slightly mineralized with a high content of organic substances. Representatives of this group are the waters of the "Naftusya" type (Truskavets). Silver was identified in the spring water.
The water is hydrocarbonate-calcium-magnesium.

The Arzhan-Suu spring is a state monument of nature, located 7 km from Manzherok on the 477th kilometer of the Chuisky tract, right behind the new bridge leading to the Turquoise Katun tourist complex.

The water in the spring is saturated with silver, copper and other mineral impurities, and therefore it is stored for a long time and, most importantly, has a beneficial effect on improving metabolic processes in the body. The water contains a large amount of ferrous iron, and this is much more than in the sources of Essentuki and Borjomi!

Near the spring there is a café of the same name, built of stone in the style of ancient castles. Here you can also see the so-called shaman-trees, decorated with white ribbons. Arzhan-Suu is a popular place among tourists. Along the road you can buy a variety of Altai souvenirs: products made of wood, birch bark and stone, as well as video cassettes and CDs about Altai.

What is so amazing and mystical in this spring? If you translate Arzhan Suu from Altai, you get "silver water". You can learn about the healing properties of water from the legend.

The legend says about the times when there were a lot of deer (mountain deer) in these places. Once one of the hunters, seeing a deer with horns of extraordinary beauty, began to chase. During the chase, he wounded the deer. But then something amazing happened! With the last of his strength, the deer reached the source and rushed into it. Having reached the spring, the hunter saw that the wounds on the deer's body had healed, and in a few jumps he disappeared into the thickets. The surprise of the hunter knew no bounds. Having gone down to the source, he lowered the dried grayling into the water. In a moment the fish swam away. Throwing the dressed skin of an otter into the water, the hunter saw that she, too, came to life and swam away...

There is another legend about the miraculous properties of the source

One girl, having lost her beloved, wandered the earth for a long time, trying to find him. For many years of searching, she repeatedly washed herself in a mountain spring. And when she found her sweetheart, he did not recognize his beloved. It turns out that with each washing, the girl grew younger. And by the time of the meeting, he had aged, and she looked like a child...

And, indeed, the source of Arzhan Suu got its name not in vain. This is a mineral spring, with a high content of silver ions, copper and other mineral impurities. As a result, it is stored for a long time without losing its qualities. And in terms of iron content, the water from the source surpasses the famous Borjomi and Essentuki.

For the Altaians, the source of Arzhan Suu is a holy place!

Near the source grow shaman - trees, with multi-colored ribbons. The ribbons are 5 cm wide and 20 cm long. Thus, the Altaians revere the gods. At the same time, the color of the ribbons is only light: white and yellow, blue and green.

The miraculous source gives strength and health to people, animals, and birds. And if you make a good bright wish near the spring, then it will definitely come true.

At 8 km from the village of Manzherok, a transparent spring springs from rocky cracks - the source of Arzhan-suu. This is one of the most popular and mystical places in Altai. It's hard to get past. There are always a lot of cars and buses on the highway. Every guest of Altai strives to be sure to visit the famous spring.

Translated from the Altai "arzhan-suu" means "silver water". Indeed, the water here has a high content of silver ions, and there is even more ferrous iron in it than in the famous Essentuki. An ancient Altai legend tells about the healing properties of the Arzhan-suu spring.

In ancient times, there were many marals in these places - mountain deer. They were very beautiful animals with powerful branching horns and smooth hair. Once a hunter was chasing a beautiful large maral with amazingly beautiful horns for a long time. He even managed to wound the beast, but the deer gathered all his strength and tried to escape from the hunter along the mountain paths. The hunter really wanted to take possession of the beautiful deer antlers. For a long time they ran along the rocks and gorges, the deer completely weakened, and then he went to the source of Arzhan-suu. He ran up to a sheer cliff and rushed into the water with a run. While the hunter carefully descended down to the source, the wounds on the body of the beast healed, and with renewed vigor he rushed to the heels and in a few moments hid in the thickets so that no traces could be found.

The hunter was surprised at such a miraculous healing. He groped in a knapsack for dried grayling, which he took with him to refresh himself on the hunt. Threw the fish into the water. In a second, the fish moved its fins and swam away alive and unharmed. Then the hunter took off the dressed skin of an otter from his shoulder and also threw it into the water. In less than a moment, the otter came to life and swam away after the grayling.

Since then, the miraculous water of the Arzhan-suu spring has been known far beyond Altai. Well, if you make a wish near the spring, it will surely come true. Only it should be kind and the most intimate.

Today, next to the Arzhan-suu spring, there is the largest souvenir market in Altai. Here everyone will find something for himself that will remind him of the distant and beautiful Altai.

Today I will tell you about the ascents of 2017 to the peaks of Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola (4082 m) and Russian Shater (4117 m), which are located in the Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola massif, in the south of Ukok in Altai. I have been climbing these peaks almost every year since 2009. In our plans we usually have the Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola peak (whose name we sometimes abbreviate to Tabyn for simplicity) with a height of 4082 m, but with good weather and time, we usually manage to climb the second peak Russkiy Shater with a height of 4117 m , which is located a kilometer from the first one. This year, a group of nine people initially gathered for this ascent, but at the last moment four out of nine refused, and as a result, a group of only five remained. All five are from different cities, they didn’t know each other before, they all have different physical training and experience, and different motivations. Nevertheless, we all climbed both peaks, which I consider a completely successful result. The ascent starts from the camp at an altitude of 3000 m, where we come on foot from Jazator, accompanied by a horse caravan that carries our things. This journey takes five days, and it is very important, because during this time everyone “cares” for physical fitness, gets acclimatized and turns into a team. The ascent usually starts at 6 am. The first 30-40 minutes we walk along the stone moraine, then we put on the crampons, get into a bunch and go out to the glacier. When we walked along the flat part of the glacier, the wind caught up with cloudy caps on Russkiy Tent and Tabyn. As we ascended to the zone of cracks, the caps became denser and the wind at the top intensified, occasionally blowing up the gaps. At some point, we discussed whether it was worth aborting the climb and trying again the next day in the hope of better weather. In general, the scenario of 2016 was repeated, when we climbed the Russian Tent, stood there for several minutes under a hurricane wind in dense clouds and went down. A slight difference was that the wind still sometimes fanned the clouds over the Russian Tent and the top opened for 30-40 seconds. I suggested postponing this decision to a height of 3600 m, to a stop on the rocks, after which the most difficult part begins - a long climb up the slope with a sufficiently large slope, where you can not fully relax. We passed the glacier and the zone of cracks relatively quickly, and this gave us hope that we would overcome the last section as well. While we were sitting on the rocks and drinking tea, it became completely clear that it was worth going only to the Russian Tent, since there were breaks in the clouds above it, and the top of Tabyn was densely wrapped in clouds all the time. Here on a halt, one of the participants of the ascent, Olga, offered to stay and wait for our return from the ascent, but I found some necessary words for her, and she went with us. Usually, on the last long climb, we overcome 50 steps at a pace, we rest for a minute - we restore our breathing. And with increasing altitude, these rests become longer. This year there was almost no snow and it was easy for me to trail in this area, and everyone, including Olga, went quite well. The last section before reaching the rocks is relatively steep, but from them to the top there are already several tens of meters. When we reached these stones, I was surprised to see human figures on the top, I thought that these were most likely Mongolian climbers, since there were no climbers from our side. This turned out to be partly true. Yes, they came from the Mongolian side, but they were our compatriots from Novosibirsk. They made a traverse from the Potanin glacier. Today they started from the top of the Cities of Heroes 3911 m, after the Russian Tent they planned to go to Tabyn and go down to their camp on the Potanin glacier. They were also surprised to see us, and also to the fact that we were walking light and left the "green" today. We spent some time at the top together. A strong wind was blowing, there were almost no gaps in the clouds, and plans to climb Tabyn also seemed very illusory. The Novosibirsk people went down to the saddle between the Russian Shatr and Tabyn, and we stayed on the top for some more time, wanting to wait for the light and look down from the top. And we have been waiting for this light. Moreover, it was not a short-term gap, but a global one - the cloudiness rose, first the entire Ukok became visible, then Malchin Peak, and then Tabyn. Novosibirsk went for it, as it became clear that the weather was changing for the better. All these changes happened in just 10-15 minutes. The wind subsided a lot, the sun was shining and I didn’t want to leave the summit, I waited for the shots of the ascending combination on Tabyn and waited. There was still plenty of time, and we also decided to go to Tabyn as well. Passing the saddle, Olga once again timidly tried to stay there and wait for us, but again I found something to say to her, and she continued her ascent. Now I don’t even remember what I lured her with :). From the saddle to the top is only 80 m in height. It was just a pleasure to walk them along the steps that the Novosibirsk people filled. When we came to the top of Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola, the cloudiness rose even higher and Kiytyn (4374 m) was already fully opened - the highest point of Mongolia and the entire Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola massif. After enjoying these views, and making summit shots, we went down, the weather began to deteriorate again. The most dangerous section on the entire descent was the descent to the stones at 3600 m, since there was almost no snow here, and the slope was quite good. We passed it quite quickly and without incident, and the further descent also passed without excesses. We were already in the camp at six in the evening, so the whole ascent took about twelve hours. I want to say a big thank you for everything to all the participants in this ascent, as well as to the Spirits of the mountains, who gave us the opportunity to stand on these two peaks and let us go in peace.

The natural monument of the Republic of Altai - the Arzhan-Suu spring is located at the Chuisky tract, 8 kilometers from the village of Manzherok. The source is located to the left of the tract. Next to it, along the road, there are a large number of stalls with Altai souvenirs, where you can buy ceramics, wood, birch bark and stone products, national clothes and musical instruments, maps, postcards, video cassettes and CDs about Altai. The cafe "Arzhan-Suu", known from the film "Such a guy lives" by Vasily Shukshin, also operates here.

The Arzhan-Suu spring is also called "Silver Spring", "Holy Spring", "Driver's Key". It emerges from rocky cracks in several places and after a couple of tens of meters forms a single stream. In addition to the high content of silver, the spring water is saturated with copper and other mineral impurities, it is stored for a long time and has a beneficial effect on the metabolism in the body. And the content of ferrous iron in the water of Arzhan-Suu is noticeably higher than in the well-known springs of Essentuki and Borjomi. Unfortunately, according to research data, recently the content of anthropogenic substances in the mineral water of the source has increased, which indicates a deterioration in its ecological state. Vehicles constantly stop near the source, contributing to environmental pollution with lead and oil products. At the peak of the summer tourist season, the number of visitors to the source sometimes reaches 1000 people per day.

Near the source of Arzhan-Suu there is a new automobile bridge to the left bank of the Katun, leading to the Turquoise Katun tourist complex. Further along the tract is the tourist center "Globus Plus".