Dzharilgatsky National Nature Park

Dzharilgatsky National Nature Park

Dzharylgach Island (from Turkic "burnt wood") is located in the Black Sea Gulf — Karkinitskyi. Covering an area of ​​56 square kilometers, it is the largest island in the Black Sea and Ukraine in general.

The climate on the island is temperate continental, typical for Ukrainian steppe, but is more mild, providing favourable conditions for recreation.

Dzharylgach is rich on estuary lakes (over 200). It is known for its curative mud and salt lakes, where water has a high content of iodine and bromine. The air itself is rich with compounds of such elements and ozone. The sea inhabitants that are worth mentioning are stone and grass shrimp and two dozen species of crabs. Often you can see white-sided dolphins, Black Sea bottlenose dolphins and porpoises. Local waters are rich with sturgeon — sterlet and stellate sturgeon. A marsh turtle can be found close to fresh water bodies.

The island is also home to such endangered plants from Red Book of Ukraine as Dniper stipa, sword-grass and marsh zolotoboridnyk tsykadovyy.

The animal world of the island includes deer, fallow deer, mouflon, wild boar, hares, foxes, that move to the island on ice or on the sandspit. In addition, Dzharylgach is a nesting place for migrating birds — swans, ducks, geese, etc. that gather in numbers of more than 150 thousand during winter season. One of the key sights of the island is a hundred year old lighthouse, designed by one of the students of Eiffel and installed in 1902. The view from the top of the lighthouse on the sand spit, covered by the olive trees, is quite picturesque.