Tuva is rich in natural medicinal waters, salt and mud lakes, mineral and freshwater geysers. Many of these geysers and lakes have fascinating properties, being in unique climactic zones, and surrounded by astounding natural beauty. Hundreds of tourists flock to them regularly every year. People come from the far corners of Tuva to the healing waters all year round. In the winter, a meter-thick layer of ice forms around the spring – called Arzhaan in Tuvan – and visitors split off blocks of this ‘sour ice’. During the USSR people came from as far as the Baltic states and Ukraine to bathe here. Azhyg-Sur performed miracles with people for whom doctors ran out of methods.