Arshan

Arshan sits at the foot of the Tunkinsky Goltsy, the eastern Sayan wall, where the mountains rise nearly two thousand metres straight out of the Tunka valley floor, and it exists for its water - arshan is the Buryat and Mongolian word for a healing spring, and the carbonated mineral water here has been used long before the sanatoria were built around it in the twentieth century. Above the village the Kyngarga river runs out of a gorge in a series of waterfalls reached by a short walk, with marble-bedded pools and, further up, longer routes into the mountains. There is a Buddhist datsan and shamanic sites in the valley. In 2014 a debris flow came down the Kyngarga after heavy rain and ran through the village, destroying buildings, and the scar and the boulders it left are visible - a reminder of what a stream on that gradient does.

Highlights

• The springs - carbonated mineral water the village is built around.
• The Sayan wall - the Tunkinsky Goltsy rising two thousand metres from the valley.
• The Kyngarga falls - a short walk up a marble-bedded gorge above the village.
• The 2014 debris flow - the scar and boulders left where it ran through the village.

When to go

June to September for walking; winter for frozen falls and quiet. A day, or longer using it as a base for the Sayan routes.

What to expect

Health claims about the water are for clinicians, not travel writing. The village is heavily built up with sanatoria and stalls. The gorge path is slippery and the debris flow risk is real in heavy rain. Mountain routes above are serious.

Nearby

The Tunka valley runs east and west; Lake Baikal is north-east.