Yessentuki (Russian: Ессентуки́, IPA: [jɪsɪntʊˈkʲiˑ]) is a city in Stavropol Krai, Russia, located in the shadow of Mount Elbrus at the base of the Caucasus Mountains.

Masson and excavations of eight mausoleums showed that there was a large Golden Horde settlement near the present-day Essentuki in the 13th-15th centuries.

Gaaz found two small wells with salty water (the present Gaazo-Ponomaryovsky spring) in the valley of the stream of Kislusha, about 4 kilometers (2.5 mi) northeast of the Yessentuksky post.

In 1825, General Yermolov founded the stanitsa of Yessentukskaya on the Bugunta River 3.5 kilometers (2.2 mi) northeast of the former Yessentuksky post;[citation needed] its inhabitants were engaged in trade, trucking, and serving arriving patients.

In 1839, water from springs ##23-26 was led to the common pool, where the first two baths of the wooden bathhouse were built at the expense of the Cossack Regiment Management.

In 1846, Prince Mikhail Vorontsov, the namestnik (vicegerent) of Caucasus, ordered to extend the territory of the stanitsa of Yessentukskaya to the northeast to approach the springs.

During the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, the health resort was heavily damaged by Nazi occupation from August 10, 1942 to January 11, 1943 and was restored at the end of the 1940s.

In 1991, the health resort operated twenty-five sanatoria, including ten belonging to the trade unions; the number of beds totaled over 10,000.

Sodium carbonic hydrocarbonate-chloride (i.e. salt-alkaline) water of springs #4 and #17, which have made the health resort popular, are the most famous and therapeutically valuable.

Alongside mineral waters, the medical establishments of Yessentuki use sulphide silt muds of Tambukan Lake (8 kilometers (5.0 mi) southeast of Pyatigorsk).

The oldest architectural monument of Yessentuki is the wooden St. Nicholas' Church (built in the mid-1820s, presumably by the architects Giovanni and Giuseppe Bernardacci) in the centre of the former stanitsa.

The area to the north of the Park (between the latter and the railway line) was developed since the end of the 19th century as a zone for private sanatoriums, villas (Orlinoye gnezdo, 1912–14, Art Nouveau), and resort constructions; the monumental building of the therapeutic mud bath in the spirit of ancient Roman thermae decorated with a mighty Ionic portico and numerous sculptures (1913–1915, architect Shreter, sculptors L. A. Ditrikh and Vasily Kozlov).

Among the significant structures of the middle of the 20th century are four solemn entrances to the Kurortny Park (mid-1950s, architect P. P. Yeskov), the drinking gallery of spring No.

Winter is mild, with thaws; the temperature in January averages to −4 °C (25 °F); severe frosts sometimes take place; mists are frequent.