Lake Ritsa

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Lake Greater Ritsa
Mountains surrounding the lake
Coordinates	43°29′N 40°33′ECoordinates: 43°29′N 40°33′E
Primary sources	Lashipsa River
Primary outflows	Iupshara River
Basin countries	Abkhazia, Georgia
Surface area	1.49 square kilometers
Max depth	116 meters
Shore length¹	4.29 kilometers
Surface elevation	950 meters
Islands	0
Settlements	Avadhara
¹ Shore length is an imprecise measure which may not be standardized for this article.

Location of the lake in Abkhazia

Lake Ritsa (Abkhaz Риҵа, Georgian რიწა), located in the northern part of Abkhazia, de jure an autonomous republic of Georgia, is a beautiful lake in the Caucasus Mountains, surrounded by mixed mountain forests and subalpine meadows. Its water is cold and clear. Mountains with heights of 2200 to 3500 m surround the lake. Many specimens of the Nordmann Fir, which reach heights of over 70 meters (230 ft), are found around the lake.

Lake Ritsa is fed by six rivers and drained by one, the Iupshara River. The resort of Avadhara lies to the north of the lake.

In 1930 the Ritsa Nature Reserve (162.89 km²) was established to protect the natural state of the lake and the surrounding land. The road from the Black Sea coast was built in 1936. The lake was an important tourist attraction during the Soviet period. Despite the fact that there was a hotel built on its shore and couple of other attractions, it is no longer a tourist attraction due to the conflict in the area.

Lake Ritsa is one of the deepest lakes in Georgia (116 m), and is rich in trout. The average annual temperature in the area is 7.8 degrees Celsius (January -1.1 °C, August 17.8 °C). The mean annual precipitation is approx. 2000 - 2200 mm. Winters are sometimes snowy, summers warm.

The Soviet leader Joseph Stalin had one of his summer-houses (dacha) by the lake. Today this dacha belongs to Abkhazian government.

1 Ritsa-related legends
- 1.1 Ritsa's origin
- 1.2 Goodbye, Motherland!
2 Data
3 Sources
4 External links
5 Lake images

[edit] Ritsa-related legends

[edit] Ritsa's origin

In ancient times there were a valley and a river at the site of the modern lake. A girl named Ritsa lived there with three brothers Agepsta, Atsetuka and Pshegishkha. Ritsa used to pasture her animals in the valley and her brothers hunted in the high mountains by day and returned to the valley in the evening, where they ate, sang songs, and admired their sister.

Once the brothers went too far into the mountains. Ritsa missed them and sang. The forest robbers Gega and Iupshara heard her and decided to kidnap her. Iupshara caught her and rode down the valley, while Gega covered his flank. Ritsa's brothers heard her crying and came to the rescue.

Pshegishkha threw a sword at the robbers, but he missed and the sword flew over the river. The valley was filled with water and turned into a lake. Ritsa broke from Iupshara's grip, but fell into the lake. The brothers couldn't save her. Then Pshegishkha threw the robber Iupshara into the lake, but Ritsa's water wouldn't accept him and threw out him over Pshegishkha's sword and the water carried him away to the sea. Gega ran after Iupshara, but he didn't manage to rescue him.

Out of grief, the brothers turned into mountains, and today they are still standing here to protect the resting-place of Ritsa.

[edit] Goodbye, Motherland!

In the 1930s, during the construction of Stalins's dacha, soldiers carried building materials by the lacet. Once, in the most dangerous place, one truck fell down from the lacet. As the truck was falling, the driver cried: "Goodbye, Motherland!" ("Прощай, Родина!"). So, today this place is named "Goodbye, Motherland!" among drivers.