Shira is a curative lake in the north of Khakassia Republic in 160 kilometers from Abakan. It’s located  in a superficial, open mountain hollow. The mountains surrounding it, don't exceed 150-250 meters and go down to the lake with stone ledges.

Steppe is surrounding this Lake, small larch and birch forests meet only from the West on northern slopes.

The biggest width of the lake is 5 kilometers, and length - 9,5 kilometers. Thus, in it about 380 million m³ healing mineral water is concentrated. It is one of the largest reservoirs in Russia which water is used in the medical purposes.

Near the lake there are three big communities: Shira's regional center (12 thousand inhabitants), former miner's settlement Tuim well-known for the Tuimsky gap, and resort settlement Zhemchuzhny.

The settlement Zhemchuzhny which is located directly on the bank of the lake and containing in the territory almost all main camp sites and health resorts,  is one of the most visited tourist places of Khakassia. Also people from Krasnoyarsk Region, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk areas are going here. And no wonder, salutary force of this water was mentioned even by ancient Khakass legends, and the first vacationers appeared here in 1873. From the bottom of the lake the dirt rich with useful minerals and possessing high therapeutic potential is extracted.

The coastal territory of the lake is also widely known as a zone of youth rest, where large-scale festivals of electronic and disco music take place every summer.

On the territory of a resort zone "Kateks", "Miracle", «Shira Lake», and also rest house «Running on the waves», and some other tourist bases are located.

The time difference with Moscow is +4 hours.