Lake Khövsgöl
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Lake Khövsgöl (Mongolian: Хөвсгөл нуур, Khövsgöl nuur) is the second largest lake in Mongolia, and one of the most important touristic destinations. Traditional names are also Khövsgöl dalay (Хөвсгөл далай, Khövsgöl ocean) or Dalay Eej (Далай ээж, ocean mother)
The Khövsgöl Province is named after the lake.
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[edit] Geography
Khövsgöl nuur is located in the northwest of Mongolia near the border to Russia, at the foot of the eastern Sayan Mountains. It is 1645 m above sea level, 136km long and 262m deep.
It's watershed is relatively small, and it only has small tributaries. It gets drained at the south end by the Egiin Gol, which connects to the Selenge and ultimately into Lake Baikal. In between, the water travels a distance of more than 1,000 km, and a height difference of 1,169 m, although the line-of-sight distance is only about 200 km.
The lake is surrounded by several mountain ranges. The highest mountain is the Munku Sardyk (3,492 m), which has its peak north of the lake exactly on the Russian-Mongolian border. The surface of the lake freezes over completely in winter. The ice cover gets strong enough to carry heavy trucks, so that transport routes are installed on its surface as shortcuts to the normal roads.
[edit] Ecological significance
Khövsgöl is one of seventeen ancient lakes worldwide more than 2 million years old and the most pristine (apart from Lake Vostok).[1][2] It holds about 3 thousandths of the liquid sweet water on this planet, and is the most significant drinking water reserve of Mongolia. Its water is potable without any treatment and offers good living conditions for many types of fish.
The Lake area is a National Park bigger than Yellowstone and strictly protected as a transition zone between Central Asian Steppe and Siberian Taiga. The lake is traditionally considered sacred in a land suffering from arid conditions where most lakes are salty.
The Park is home to a variety of wildlife such as ibex, argali, elk, wolf, wolverine, musk deer, brown bear, Siberian moose and sable.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ worldlakes.org: lake Hovsgol, retrieved 2007-02-27
- ^ Goulden, Clyde E. et al.: The Mongolian LTER: Hovsgol National Park, retrieved 2007-02-27
[edit] External links
