Safkul

Safkul takes its name from Lake Safakul in the southern Trans-Ural lake country. A Tatar settlement grew beside the lake in the late eighteenth century; the Tatar encyclopedia attributes its foundation in 1782 to Safa Yumagulov. The surrounding region includes many lakes among pasture and woodland, a landscape inhabited by Tatar and Bashkir communities as well as later Russian settlers.