Even many Russians know nothing about the area dubbed the "Venice of Volgograd", close to the city of Volgograd, on the opposite bank of the Volga River. Its location between the Volga's main riverbed and a branch named Akhtuba accounts for its name — the Volga-Akhtuba Nature Preserve. Its stunning scenery will impress even a seasoned traveler. There is a scattering of both large and small  lakes  with  crystal  clear  water,  a variety of leafy forests along the banks of numerous small rivers and their tributaries, unique coniferous forests, and water meadows with rare flowers and grasses. In the absence of factories and densely populated settlements in the vicinity, the park has preserved its primordial beauty.

The nature preserve extends for over 400 kilometers and is an ideal place for tourism and adventures. Volgograd's tourist agencies offer different kinds of recreation, including a route for tourists who prefer to commune with nature without giving up their creature comforts. The Shelter Tourist Agency provides a comfortable cruiser with every modern convenience. You can take a trip along the rivers and lakes making stops in the most picturesque spots, coming into contact with completely uninhabited corners, and visiting settlements with their unique local color. A comfortable guarded campground for 15 people offers every convenience and the services of a cook.

The nature preserve, with its primordial plant and animal life, abounds in fish, game, berries and mushrooms. Lovers of sports tourism have ample hunting opportunities. In different seasons you can hunt for geese, ducks, rabbits, foxes, or wolves. Licence holders can have the thrill of chasing wild boar.

Fishing, like no other activity, brings you into complete harmony with nature and, if you are lucky, you'll get to try genuine Russian fish soup. Since time immemorial, the Volga area has been famous for such fish as pike, carp, crucian, and catfish.

Lovers of "extreme" recreation can sail down the smaller rivers of the Lower Volga area and go scuba diving. They will always have the advice and help of experienced huntsmen and diving instructors, certified according to the international IDD standard and supplied by the Shelter Agency.

The gem of the Volga area is Lake EIton, Europe's largest salt lake. Its name originates from the Turkish Altynnor which means "golden lake". At dawn and sunset its surface acquires golden-red and violet-red shades, and the wide ring of salt around the lake sparkles in the sun. Nowhere else will you see a spectacular sight like this.

But it is not only its amazing beauty that has gained Lake EIton an entry in the 1996 World Atlas of humanity's treasures Each of the seven rivers that run into the lake has unique mineral water A mixture of these waters, dry and hot summers — similar to those  in  Egypt — and underground radiation give the lake's min-eral sediments unique properties, making their healing effect stronger than those of Dead Sea minerals. At the EIton Sanatorium you can get treatment for diseases of bones and joints, stomach and intestines, the nervous system, specific male and female diseases and many others.

The area of Lake EIton is equally famous for its soul healing properties. You will hardly find another place that can compete with it in the beauty and variety of landscapes, with their lakes, shoals, beaches, salt-marshes, ravines, and valleys. Lake EIton and its adjoining territory form another nature preserve in the region.

The history of the Lower Volga is intrinsically connected with the Cossacks. From the late 15th century, peasants fled to the River Don and the adjoining Volga territories from all parts of Russia and Ukraine. They settled in unpopulated areas, elected their own leaders known as atamans, and called themselves "free Cossacks". They were indeed the most freedom-loving and self-willed people. The Cossacks protected Russia's borders from the nomads, but at the same time they often raided the Volga area and pillaged Russian ships. You can still visit surviving Cossack settlements on the grounds of yet another nature preserve, Donskoy. Here you will come into contact with time-honored Cossack traditions, feel the spirit of their way of life, hear their famous songs, and even go through an initiation ceremony that will make you a genuine Cossack.

The Donskoy Nature Preserve invites all to its uplands, hills, rivers flowing through sands and forests, and boundless steppe with numerous lakes staring back at the sky. You will find blooming water lilies and crawfish and sterlet in the lakes, the most convincing proof of a healthy environment. 

Materials presented by SHSHIK Publishing House

(“Moscow today and tomorrow”. October. 2002)