Tinaki

TINAKI, a mud resort in the Kalmyk Autonomous Region, 13 km from Astrakhan and 4 km from the Volga River. Near the resort on the banks of the Volga are the villages of Kalmytsky Bazar and Kataninskoye with steamship landings. The surroundings of the resort consist of bare steppe. The climate is dry, continental, with hot summers. Average temperature in May is 17.9°, June-22.8°, July-25.5°, August-17.6°, September-16.8°. Atmospheric precipitation is 109.4 mm per year. In summer, there is abundant sunshine and few rainy and cloudy days. The air is clean, impregnated with the smell of wormwood, and dust-free. The disadvantages of the resort are rather strong winds and the endemicity of malaria. The mud lake has a length of 1,350.5 m, a width of 265 m, an average thickness of the mud layer of 0.45 m, and reserves of about 75,000 tons. In terms of stratification, the lake consists of brine, a salt crust, and mud. The density of the brine is 18-30° on the Baumé scale, specific gravity from 1.19 to 1.29. The salt lies under the brine in a layer of varying thickness. By the end of summer, when all the brine dries up, the lake is covered with a white-pink salt layer reaching 9 cm in thickness. The delivery of mud from the lake to the bathhouse is done on small carts, with the mud heated by steam. The mud belongs to the type of silt mud and is similar in quality to Saki mud. The mud bathhouse dispenses mud and brine baths-up to 400 procedures per day; in addition to cabin baths, there is an area for 50 solar-heated mud medals. The resort has a polyclinic, a physical therapy office, and two solariums. T. is a completely isolated resort settlement where all buildings belong to the resort. All residential buildings are located in a park and concentrated around the bathhouse, which is situated on the shore of the lake. Medical indications for T. are the same as for mud resorts in general. Season from 1/VI to 30/IX. Transportation to Astrakhan by steamboats on the Volga or by rail through Saratov.