Semi Artificial Lakes - Novo Toksovo

Dear SteemIt users,
let me share with you the story and couple of pictures from the lakes we enjoy. These lakes used to be deep under the surface, before workers dug deeper to mine sand. At some point they reached the lakes and the water filled the whole surface creating a 'real' lakes. The water in them is clear blue and cold as the whole ground consists of sand and the wells are alwayas refreshing it. It's a famouse destination for swimming and picnics for people living up north of Leningradskaya oblast and St. Petersburg. Even though it became an attraction and an awesome recreational spot, one can image that it had some significant downside for local ecosystem and it would be interesting to study this more scientifically. Rumors tell that at the times of these Lakes being filled with water from the underground, the level of water in many local communities wells dropped which led to water shortage in some communities.

Pictures show two of those lakes. I have heard of some more like those.

Almost Mars like
()
A bigger one with much more forest around - our favorite
()
Probably a real lake really close to the one on the previous picture, one sees no traces of sand
()