In sunny Kazakhstan, there are more than forty thousand lakes. Over 4,000 artificial reservoirs have been built there, collecting huge reserves of fresh water.
The quality and quantity of water in the lakes differs depending on the natural zones: in the forest-steppe zones there are approximately 740 lakes, in the steppe zones - more than 1870, in the semi-deserts - 216, in the desert territories - 142. The total water surface of all the lakes reaches 45 thousand square meters. kilometers. The largest of them are Zaysan, Alakol, Balkhash, Sasykkol and Seleteniz. These include the bitter-salty lake Tengiz, which will be discussed in this article.
Most of the lakes extend on the Turan and Caspian lowlands, on the plain of the West Siberian, in the mountainous regions of the southeast of the state and in the low mountains of the Saryarka. Almost all of them are drainless, therefore they contain salt water. In many reservoirs, salt is being mined.
Inland Lake: location, size
The lake is located on the territory of the State Kurgalzhinsky Reserve, in a tectonic depression, in the very center of Sary-Ark (small hills). The Kenganutpes and Nura rivers flow into Lake Tengiz, which has many small islands.
The area of the natural reservoir is 1590 square meters. kilometers, its length is 75 km, the depth reaches 8 meters in some places, and the width is 40 kilometers.
Description
The bottom of the pond is flat, sometimes composed of black silt, suitable for medicinal use. The water is salty.
Lake Tengiz in Kazakhstan is quite large, its dimensions are three times larger than Lake Constance. The banks of the reservoir are mostly lowland. The lake feeds mainly on the waters of thawed snow. In the driest years, a significant part of the lake dries up. In December, Tengiz freezes, and in April it opens. Mirabilite is part of the water (salinity in the lake is from 3 to 12.7 grams per m³, and in the bay - 18.2 grams per m³).
Tengiz is notable for the fact that for the first time in the history of Soviet cosmonautics a successful splashdown of the crew of the Soyuz-23 space expedition occurred in it.
Lake feature
The uniqueness of Lake Tengiz is that it is one of several habitats of a surprisingly beautiful fairytale bird - the northernmost nesting population of pink flamingos in the world.
These are very careful birds, choosing places difficult to access for people to nest. It is not surprising that they settled on the islands of this lake: some parts of it are covered with salt crust. At the same time, up to 14 thousand pairs nest here, and the number of individuals in total can reach 60,000.
Quite rare black storks, red-breasted geese and whooper swans live here. In the boundless steppe sky above the lake proud steppe eagles soar. Only fish are not here.
Common ecosystem
Since 1968, most of the terrain around Lake Tengiz has been a nature protection zone and is part of the Kurgaldzhinsky hunting reserve. In general, the lake is unattractive for aquatic hunting birds such as geese and ducks, but is a great place for nesting gulls, waders and terns. Reed thickets give shelter to many species of waterfowl not only during their nesting, but also during molting (late summer) and during autumn and spring migrations.
In this unique conservation area, scientists counted 50 species of mammals, 318 species of birds and 340 species of plants. Of particular note are animals such as the steppe wolves and saigas. In addition to the aforementioned flamingos, curly pelicans (only 500 pairs) nest on the numerous islands of the inland lake Tengiz. In the steppes you can also find the Numidian crane.
About the value of the reserve
The conservation of the ecosystem that has developed around the lakes is very important not only for Kazakhstan, because in these places two significant migration routes of birds intersect - the Siberian-South European and Central Asian. The geographical (center of the Eurasian continent) unique location of the reserve is of great importance. The presence of such a lake system within such an area (a territory with a semi-dry climate - steppes and semi-deserts) is very important.
Traces of human impact on the nature of these places are minimal, so the territory has retained its natural appearance. Today, without exaggeration, we can say that this unique territory entirely belongs to nature, which created such wealth.
Conclusion
Lake Tengiz is included in history as the venue for the most important event today. In the future, an annual festival called “Flamingo” is planned in the Korgalzhyn Reserve .
This event, which aims to draw attention to the conservation of rare bird species and not only, is supported by the Kazakhstan Biodiversity Conservation Fund and EIMRC (Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation). This corner of Kazakhstan with numerous lakes is unique and beautiful.