Sarygamysh Lake

Sarygamysh Lake
December 2001
Coordinates	42°00′N 57°20′E / 42.000°N 57.333°E / 42.000; 57.333Coordinates: 42°00′N 57°20′E / 42.000°N 57.333°E / 42.000; 57.333
Basin countries	Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
Surface area	ca. 5,000 km²
Surface elevation	5 m

The Sarygamysh Lake, also Sarykamysh or Sary-Kamysh (Turkmen: Sarygamyş köli, Uzbek: Sariqamish ko‘li, Russian: Сарыкамы́шское озеро), Turkmen for "Yellow Depression", is a lake situated in central north Turkmenistan. It is geographically located approximately midway between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. Approximately the northwest quarter of the lake belongs to the country of Uzbekistan, while the rest belongs to Turkmenistan.

Lake Sarygamysh was fed, up to the 17th century, by the Uzboy River, a distributary of the Amu Darya River, which continued on to the Caspian Sea. Today, it is largely fed by the run-off water from surrounding irrigated lands, containing high levels of pesticides, herbicides and heavy metals.

The name of the lake comes from Turkmen sarykamysh 'reed.'^[1]

References

1. ↑ E.M. Pospelov, Geograficheskiye nazvaniya mira (Moscow, 1998), p. 369.