Lake Naroch

There is probably nothing unusual about the name Naroch: in Indo-European languages, the roots nar and ner are traditionally woven into the names of reservoirs. Let's recall Lake Nero in the south-west of the Yaroslavl region, or the left tributary of the Ob River, the Nara River, or, for example, the river with two names – Belarusian Vilia and Lithuanian Nyaris. By the way, in Lithuanian and Latvian, the root nar is also often used to denote different creatures living in water. And the Russian "dive" is very consonant with these "water" words.

Naroch is the largest of the 40 lakes in the Naroch Group and is located in the center of the Naroch National Park.

The length is about 12.8 km.
The maximum width is about 9 km.
The area is 79.62 km2.
The maximum depth is 24.8 m (in the area of the Gatovsky pits).
The average depth is 8.9 m.
The volume of water is 0.71 km3.
The length of the coastline is 40 km (4th place in Belarus in this indicator).
The height above sea level is 165 m.
Many thousands of years ago, the glacier, retreating, collided with the Svenyats moraine ridge and stopped its movement. Gradually melting, it filled all the lowlands, niches and depressions. This is how the Naroch group of lakes and Lake Naroch itself were formed. However, the legend says otherwise:

In the old days, when there were no lakes in these parts, the beautiful Galina lived with her forester father at the edge of the dense forest. And she had a fiance, Cornflower, a brave guy and a craftsman, which are few.

And Cornflower loved his Galina so much that he collected spring grains of sand for her one at a time and made a magic mirror out of them. "If you look deep into these droplets," he told his Galina, "you can see your future!" But Galina, admiring herself in this mirror, saw only how a seagull soared over the lake surface, and for some reason it became alarming in her soul.

And so everything would have gone on as usual, if one day a rich old gentleman had not laid eyes on our Galina. Unwilling to accept a refusal, he stole a beautiful woman from her parents' house and decided to take her as his wife by force. But the brave Cornflower rushed after him and killed him, saving his beloved.

The master's servants rushed after Cornflower and Galina. Cornflower then ordered Galina to return to her father's house on the edge of the dense forest. And he began to lead the chase away.

Galina obeyed her lover. But there was only smoke and ashes waiting for her at the place of the house. And in the magic mirror, she saw a Cornflower lying on the ground, and a black raven circling above it. The fingers unclenched, the mirror fell out of his hands – and crumbled into fragments, becoming the Naroch lakes. At the same moment, Galina turned into a seagull and is now hovering over the water, calling her betrothed.

Naroch is a shallow lake, and the water here is clean and transparent: even at a depth of 10 meters, you can see the sandy bottom!

At the headwaters of the Narochanka River, the banks are low and swampy, so there are a lot of frogs and, as a result, herons. But in the south there are wide sandy beaches and convenient gentle descents to the water, so these places are favored by tourists, sanatoriums and children's camps are being built here.

It is warm, shallow and very rich in wildlife (there are about 20 species of fish here). Naroch has not escaped a common problem in these parts – the so-called "bathers' disease". For a quarter of a century, the water here has been infected with cercariae, larvae of parasitic worms that "bite" people and thus "mistakenly" settle under the skin for several days until they die. Cercariasis, as a rule, is not dangerous and causes only unpleasant sensations – itching, redness, and in rare cases fever. Nevertheless, a shower after bathing in Naroch is an obligatory ritual for every vacationer on the shores of the lake.

A water protection zone has been created around Naroch. This means that the use of any natural resources, including fishing and deforestation, is strictly limited here. At the same time, there is a fish processing plant right on the shore of the lake. Our own production of canned fish, as well as smoked and salted products, is a good help for the development of the region and at the same time one of the reasons for the deterioration of the environmental situation.