Omsk lies in the Russian West Siberian Plain. Several dozen kilometers south of the city, in the former village of Achair, there is the church and Achairsky Monastery, which was founded in 1905. During the war the monastery buildings were destroyed and looted, whereas the communion was dissolved. Since the 1930s there was a colony for political prisoners, which took two hundred thousand lives. After the collapse of the USSR the monastery was reconsecrated and could resume celebrating the masses. Currently there is an impressive architectural ensemble in the Monastery of the Holy Cross, which consists of beautiful churches with golden domes, a bell tower, dormitory for pilgrims, chapels and a statue of St. Nicholas. Pilgrims from around the world are also attracted by a spring of mineral water which has some healing properties. The temperature of water is equal to the temperature of the human body, amounting to exactly 36.6 degrees Celsius.
