Zagedan Cirque Lake in Green Summer Slopes

A small lake lies in a hollow of the mountains, its water a deep blue-teal that turns paler and greener near the shallow edge. The near shore is covered in short grass and pale, scattered boulders, and a rocky bank curves in from the right. Beyond the water, steep slopes in bright green rise to grey rock ridges and two jagged peaks. A fan of pale scree runs down between them. Soft white cloud fills most of the sky, with a few patches of blue, and the light is even and clear. The mood is calm and open.

The Zagedan lakes sit in a mountain cirque in Karachay-Cherkessia, in the western Caucasus, Russia. A cirque is a bowl-shaped hollow cut by glacial ice, and this one is a typical ancient glacial landform of the range. The glacier retreated about 11,000 years ago and left the basin that now holds the water. The surrounding rock includes karst formations. Because the lake is high in the mountains, its green summer season is short. The wide landscape format and the strong band of blue in the middle suit a widescreen monitor or an ultrawide desktop, where the peaks can frame the icons.

More like this: Granite Ridge Above a Sayan Mountain Lake.