In the quiet resort town of Saki, located on the western coast of the Crimean peninsula, there are no palaces, but the flow of people coming here has not dried up since ancient times.
The very name Saki in translation from Turkish means “mud”. The first mention of a certain city, where there is a miraculous mud that cures various ailments, appears in the 1st century BC.
Today, the local lake is the main attraction of the city, and it is from its bottom that therapeutic mud has been extracted for many centuries. The researchers say that there was originally a lagoon in the Black Sea. For a long time, the sand was washed out, which later turned into a bay, separating the lake from the sea. It took several millennia for the ancient seabed to become covered with silt, which later became the healing mud of Saka. For many years, complex processes involved in the activity of microorganisms took place in the bowels of the lake. As a result, a kind of “layer cake” was “baked” from the mud of the mound.
Therefore, the lake is considered a real natural laboratory, and the mud has acquired unique properties. Many scientific institutes have found in its composition salts of various metals, minerals, organic compounds, even hormones and biogenic substances that have a positive effect on the immune system.
Decoration of the city – the church of Saint Elias. The building looks unified, although the bell tower was built in 1894 and the church itself in 1902 Photo: provided by Saki LLC
Not only Saka mud turned out to be useful, but also salty lake water, the so-called brine. After all, the lake continues to fill with water from the sea. Under the hot rays of the Crimean sun, the liquid gradually evaporates, and a solution of various chemical compounds of high concentration remains in the lake. The content of these substances can reach up to 180 grams per liter of water. And the air itself, rich in magical vapors, also has a beneficial effect on the human body. Therefore, even walks on the lake are useful for people suffering from diseases of the upper respiratory tract or a disorder of the nervous system. And there are places to walk. In the 19th century, a large park was built in the city, it has more than 80 species of trees and shrubs. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol walked through its alleys, taking a course of mud therapy in a local sanatorium. A reminder of this is the sculpture of him in the center of Saki Park.
Mud baths, balneological complexes and sanatoriums have long been equipped in such a fertile place. In 1827 a mud bath and spa was opened here. The first one here began to provide medical care to the wounded soldiers and officers who suffered in the battles of the Crimean War. The saki mud eased his suffering. In 1912 a new building was built according to the project of the architect D. Richter. And the research institute for diagnostics and physical methods of treatment, known as Tsanderovsky, undertook a comprehensive study of the properties of Saki mud, finding more and more evidence of its benefits. In Soviet times, spas switched to year-round work, and in the early 1980s the extraction of silt deposits from the bottom of the lake was improved – manual labor was replaced by mechanized devices. Right on the shore of the lake, from the bottom of which a miraculous mud is extracted, the sanatorium “Saki” was erected. And there is no person who, after mud procedures, does not feel rested, gaining strength – a real prince!
