Lake Uchum is one of the most famous healing lakes in Siberia

Lake Uchum is one of the most famous healing lakes in Siberia. It is located in the Uzhur region in the south of the Kachin steppe, 30 km south of the city of Uzhur, among the eastern spurs of the Kuznetsk Alatau. Lake Uchum is located in a narrow, cramped mountain valley. 

Uchum was supposed to be healing at the end of the 18th century. When the first scientist who came to its shore, academician Pallas tried to drink from it, he noticed that the water is salty and bitter, which, as you know, is the first indicator of healing. However, the last doubts about the benefits of local waters and mud disappeared at the beginning of the 19th century, when a woman, limping to the lake on crutches, plunged into its salt waters and came out of the water healed. 

To be honest, there have been no such obvious cases of recovery in the lake since then, but this does not pvent people from coming here every year, drinking water smelling with hydrogen sulfide and wallowing in the local coal-black, velvety-oily mud.