Balkhash is a salt or fresh lake. Which Kazakh lake, the only one in the world, is half fresh, half salty? Paradise for anglers

Balkhash (Balkhash; Kaz. Balkhash) is a drainless semi-freshwater lake in the Balkhash-Alakol basin in the southeast of Kazakhstan, the second largest non-drying lake salt Lake(after the Caspian Sea) and 14th in the list of the largest lakes in the world.

The uniqueness of the lake lies in the fact that it is divided by a narrow strait into two parts with different chemical characteristics of water - in the western part it is almost fresh, and in the eastern part it is brackish.

Its area at low standing water is 17.5 thousand square meters. km, with a higher up to 19 thousand square meters. km. The average length is 600 km. Balkhash lies at an altitude of 340 m above the sea. Balkhash drainless lake accepts the rivers Ili, Karatal, Ak-su and others. natural conditions Balkhash is divided by the narrow Uzun-Aral strait into a relatively shallow western stretch (up to 11 m), which receives the river. Or, desalinating this entire part of the lake, and the eastern deeper stretch (up to 26.5 l), separated by the indicated strait, its water is salty. Thus, in hydrochemical and biological terms, Balkhash is a fresh-salt mixotrophic heterogeneous lake.

The first researcher of Balkhash, who laid the foundation for its hydrological and biological study, was L. S. Berg. His expedition (equipped by the Geographical Society) descended in 1903 to Balkhash along the river. Or and for the first time established the presence fresh water in the western part of the lake, made a map of the lake and gave scientific coverage of the history of this wonderful reservoir. In Soviet times, it was studied in detail by P.F. Domrachev (1931).

Balkhash lies among the Zhambyl, Karaganda, Taldy-Kurgan and Almaty regions of Kazakhstan. It has a horseshoe shape and is elongated from west to east. To go around Balkhash around, you need to make a path equal to the distance from Leningrad to the Crimea. The length of the lake is 595 km, at its widest point it is 71 km, but almost everywhere it is much narrower.

The southern shores are low, in the western part they represent a dry sandy plain of the old river delta. Or, criss-crossed by the dried-up beds of her former sleeves. Further, along the shores of the lake covered with reeds, a ridge of low sandy hills stretches, behind which the Sary-Ishikotrau desert of sands stretches to the south and east. Only in the east the coast rises. In the north, the Bedpak-Dala desert and the spurs of the Kazakh folded country approach the lake.

Nowadays, Balkhash no longer represents a deserted and wild place, as during the expeditions of L. S. Berg and P. F. Domrachev. The town of Balkhash sprawled on the northern shore, and a number of villages appeared. From the west along the Balkhash passes Railway Mointy-Chu, its branch goes to the city of Balkhash. The waters of the lake are surfed by steamships sailing along the entire lake, and dozens of fishing boats. Balkhash collects water from the spurs of the Tien Shan, the Trans-Ili and Dzungarian Alatau. Its largest tributary Ili (1300 km) flows into the lake in the southwest. The catchment area of ​​Balkhash is 176.5 thousand square meters. km.

The Ili River carries the bulk of fresh water into the lake, it is full of water and little subject to level fluctuations. It is this water that freshens the entire western shallower section of Balkhash, in which mineralization only gradually increases from 500 mg/l as the distance from the river mouth to 1500 mg/l towards the Uzun-Aral strait. The remaining tributaries of the Balkhash: Karatal, Ak-su, Lepsa and Ayaguz are shorter and have less effect on the chemical regime of the lake. All of them flow into the eastern salty deeper part of the lake, where the mineralization is from 3500 to 5000 mg/l of water.

The level of the lake is subject to long-term periodic fluctuations, possibly associated with the changing high water content of the tributaries, which begin near the snows of the Tien Shan. During periods of high water, the level of the lake rises by 2.75 m and it becomes fresher. Level changes occur about once every 40 years.

Balkhash is shallow (average depth 6 m), and in the hot climate of Central Asia, its water is heated to 27-30 ° in the summer months. Balkhash freezes not every year. The lake is quite rough, and the waves on it are significant.

Due to the exhaustion of silt from the bottom, the water of the lake is slightly transparent and has a greenish-whitish color. The Kazakhs call Balkhash "Ak-Deniz", which means "White Sea". But in quiet days for more deep places the lake takes on a pure emerald blue hue and transparency increases (up to 4.5-5 m). The oxygen regime of the lake is quite satisfactory, there is no stagnant water anywhere.

The shores of Balkhash are mostly sandy. The deserts surrounding the lake pass along its shores into flat, far-reaching beaches of sand dotted with fragments of shutter shells. In some places, the sand is silty and overgrown with a thick wall of reeds along the southwestern and southern coasts. The latter not only grows in the water, but in some places goes ashore. A mass of fragments of old stems, dry leaves and reed roots peat the shore.

Wild boars are found in the thickets. There are a lot of waterfowl, there are whole colonies of pelicans. About 40 years ago there was a tiger in the shores of Balkhash.

Stony and rocky soils of the littoral are more common along the northern and east coast at bedrock outcrops.

Deeper the bottom is lined at first with dark, and in the main basin with light gray, strongly siliceous silts, with a large admixture of diatom valves.

Fauna and flora of Lake Balkhash

The fauna of the lake is not rich, but it uniquely reflects its mixed hydrochemical regime.

Zooplankton includes:

• 5 types of protozoa,
• 28 - rotifers,
• 11-cladocer and,
• 6 species of copepods.

In the open lake, in the western fresher part, rotifers are found:

• 2 types of keratelli,
• Trichocerca small (Trichocerca pusila),
• chromogaster turtle,
• pompholyx furrowed,

and from crustaceans:

• diaphanodoma,
• leptodora,
• cyclops Leuckart,
• thick cyclops (Cyclops crassus),
• diatom thin and,
• hydrochloric diatom.

To the east, the number of halophilic forms, especially hydrochloric diaptome, increases, salt-loving rotifers from the genus Pedalia, and the crustacean ceriodaphnia retina appear. The number of crustaceans (without rotifers) is significantly higher in the desalinated part (over 50 thousand/m 3 of water) than in the saline eastern part (17.3 thousand/m 3 of water). E. F. Manuilova (1940), who studied the zooplankton of Balkhash, described an interesting daphnia (Daphnia balchaschensis), which changes its shape depending on the salinity of the water.

In the western fresh part of the lake, the Balkhash daphnia had a long tail spike and a high curved helmet, while this crustacean from the salty areas of the lake was round-headed with a short spike. These changes are similar to the seasonal changes in the "summer" and "winter" Daphnia lakes of the north, but they occur simultaneously in different salinity parts of the lake.

Algal plankton in the west in summer consists of melosira and ceratium, in more saline areas, blue-green foam-born nodularia (Nodularia spumigera) and diatoms: hatoceros and amphipora (I. A. Kiselev) develop.

The benthos of the lake also reflects its chemical heterogeneity. There is a complete extinction of mollusks in the lake, caused by an increase in its salinity. Now there are no mollusks in Balkhash, but at its bottom and along its banks there are many shells of freshwater species common to Siberia - pond snails (4 species), coils (2 species), shutters, bitinia, lake peas.

The vast majority of the bottom population of the lake are tendipedid larvae. Of the 24 forms of larvae of Balkhash, larvae of the salt-loving tendipes predominate everywhere, the second place, especially in the eastern regions, is occupied by the protentes, in the fresher part of the lake there are also many cryptochironomes and proclads. The emergence of chiron mosquitoes on the lake is massive and takes place sequentially, the first to complete its metamorphosis is the protentes (in June-July), followed by a massive emergence of the salt tendipes, and already in August the cryptochironome years occur.

The biomass of benthos in Balkhash is low. In the western part - 0.6 g, in the eastern 0.7 g / m 2 of the bottom. The weight of benthic organisms is higher towards the end of winter, when the biomass increases approximately three times.

1 - Balkhash marinka, 2 - gubach, 3 - carp, 4 - Balkhash perch, 5 - Aral spike

In such big lake like Balkhash, previously there were only 5 species of fish:

• two species of marinok (Schizothorax pseudoaksaiensis and Sch. argentatus),
• large Strauch char (Nemachilus strauchi),
• sloth (Nemachilus labiatus) and,
• Balkhash perch (Perea schrenki).

Occasionally from the Or Polyakov's minnow (Phoxinus poljakowi) comes in. Fish grow slowly, marinka feed on aquatic plants, loaches on coastal invertebrates, and perch are predatory fish.

At present, the ichthyofauna of Balkhash has been enriched with new, more valuable species.

The beginning of Balkhash fish farming was involuntarily laid by an amateur fish farmer F. Bogdanov, who bred carp from the lake near Verny (Alma-Ata). Issyk-Kul. In 1905, after the dam broke, part of the fish from his pond went into the river. Almaty, through it in the river. Or to Balkhash. Since 1913 carp has become the most common fish in Balkhash. Its catches in our time are 50-60 thousand centners per year. It is known that carp feeds mainly on tendipedid larvae.

In 1933 in the river. Or a spike was released from the Aral Sea. Now it is already caught in the western Balkhash, reaching a length of more than 1 m and a weight of over 9 kg. In Balkhash, the thorn feeds on char and perch. A bream has been introduced into the lake, and the Siberian dace has also appeared in it. Thus, the fish fauna of Balkhash has become more complete, and therefore the feeding possibilities of this large reservoir are better used.

In the Balkhash basin there is a number of salt lakes, many of which, like Ala-Kul, previously, undoubtedly, were one with Balkhash and, being separated from it, quickly underwent salinization.

In total, about 70 self-sustaining lakes have been identified in the Balkhash region. Among them there are chloride, sulfate lakes containing mainly mirabilite and thenardite, and most often there are mixed lakes, where the salt mass consists of table salt and sodium sulfate. In the lake Kokdombak 48 km from the station. Bertys under a thin layer of table salt and a layer of silt lies high-quality gypsum. Many of the lakes are suitable for industrial exploitation.
So, for example, from Tersakkan (to the west of the city of Balkhash) the fish factory and the Balkhash local plant receives table salt. good quality table salt is mined in the lake. Kashka-Teniz railway station Chu-Moints.

An older connection is established at the lake. Balkhash with the lakes of the Alakul depression lying further to the east, near the border with China. Lake Ala-Kul (2300 sq. km) is one of the largest lakes in Kazakhstan. Its low-lying shores are overgrown with reeds, among which there are many water birds.

Which Kazakh lake, the only one in the world, is half fresh, half salty?

Lake Balkhash

Coordinates: 46-32′27″ s. sh. 74-52′44″ in. d.

The large river Ili (80% of the total inflow of water) flows into the western part of Balkhash, and the small rivers Karatal, Aksu, Lepsy, Ayaguz and others flow into the eastern part.

The coastline is quite winding. The shores are dissected by numerous bays and bays. There are few islands, the largest are Basaral and Tasaral.

The climate around the lake is desert. The average July temperature is about 24 -C, January is about -8-C. Precipitation averages 120 mm per year. Relative air humidity 55-60%. The average annual wind speed is about 4.5-4.8 m/s. The water temperature on the surface is from 0 -C in December to 28 -C in July, it changes little at depth (temperature difference is not more than 3.3 -C). The lake freezes annually, the ice usually stays from November to March.

The currents are windy, in the western part it is constant circular.

The fauna of Balkhash is quite rich: the benthos is represented by molluscs, larvae of aquatic insects and crustaceans; plankton is also quite abundant, especially in the western part.

20 species of fish live in the lake, 6 of them are characteristic of the lake itself (Ili and Balkhash marinka, Balkhash perch, spotted and monochromatic sloth and minnow), the rest are acclimatized in it by man: carp, thorn, eastern bream, Aral barbel, Siberian dace, carp , tench, pike perch, catfish, osman and others

The main commercial fish are carp, pike perch, Balkhash perch, marinka, bream.

Lake Balkhash is one of the unique lakes on the world map. It has neither surface water runoff nor underground drainage. In fact, such reservoirs are salty. But this lake is salty and fresh at the same time. It is unique in that its water area is divided into two zones: western and eastern. Rivers flow into it throughout its length, replenishing it with water.

In the first, shallow, water is fresh, in the second, deeper, it is salty. This reservoir occupies the 2nd place after the Caspian in terms of the largest non-drying salt lakes and ranks 14th as a large salt and fresh lake peace. This interesting place on the map of Kazakhstan attracts tourists from many countries, including Russia. Travelers go to local hotels and sanatoriums to find a rest from the city stuffiness here.

old legend

There is a legend about the origin of the lake. Once upon a time, a domineering and powerful khan named Balkhash picked up and adopted a little girl, naming her Ili.

Over the years, she has grown into a beauty. When the time came to marry her off, a tournament was held and a poor man named Karatal won. Balkhash did not want to give his daughter as a wife to the poor, and the young people decided to run away. Rushing into pursuit, Balkhash used evil magic to separate the lovers, turning them into two halves of a lake.

If you look at the map, Lake Balkhash is located in the southeastern part of Kazakhstan in the Balkhash-Alakol water management basin. The basin of the reservoir has the shape of a crescent, where the rivers flow, and is divided into two zones connected by an isthmus, the depth of which is not great. Length coastline, very winding, indented by bays and bays, reaches 2500 km. The average depth in Lake Balkhash is 5.8m.

In the north and west the coast is rocky, in the south the coast is sandy. The rivers flowing into the Balkhash provide replenishment of the water balance. The large river Ili is visible on the map, also flowing into the lake, the main source running from the Tien Shan glaciers to where Lake Balkhash is located.

The weather here is determined by the peculiarities of the climate. The territory adjacent to the lake has a desert climate, the summer temperature is about +30°C, the water warms up to +28°C, in winter it can reach -15°C. Wind, rather dry climate and high temperature cause rapid evaporation of water.

Lake Balkhash has a rich and varied wildlife and flora which attracts travelers.

Endorheic lake Balkhash - water world

Types of recreation

Recreational opportunities on Lake Balkhash are varied. This is due to the very comfortable weather on Lake Balkhash, as well as the fact that it is quite warm and well warmed up.

Here you can choose different types of holidays. This is an active and passive pastime in a sanatorium, hotel, recreation center on Lake Balkhash. Only having been here once, you can see how beautiful this lake is, how comfortable the weather is here.

Many along the coast sandy beaches. The air temperature and the depth of the reservoir allow organizing the swimming season from May to September. Comfortable water temperature, optimal depth, wonderful weather throughout beach season attracts hundreds of tourists here.

The recreation areas of Lake Balkhash are located along almost the entire coastline. It offers vacationers walks on a boat or yacht, riding a scooter, swimming and surfing, diving and spearfishing. You can take a horse or camel ride.

Recreation centers and hotels invite the most daring travelers on helicopter tours, where Lake Balkhash will appear from a height, and tourists will see how beautiful it is. For 3.5 hours of flight you will have to pay about 35 thousand rubles.

Unforgettable can be winter holidays. The weather is mild in winter, the air temperature at this time rarely drops below 15 ° C, which allows you to go to different leisure areas: skiing along the shore of a frozen reservoir, riding snowmobiles, and windsurfing on ice is also popular.

Such entertainment gives the traveler this unusual fresh and at the same time salty lake.

Paradise for anglers

Fishing is good on Lake Balkhash, as there is a rich fauna that provides fishermen with exciting hours of leisure. For fishing, there are special places with accommodation, you can also rent the necessary equipment. Having retired with a fishing rod, even a beginner will be rewarded with a good catch.

Fishermen come here for the most famous fish of Lake Balkhash - roach. She is lured in all sorts of ways: on a worm, corn, maggot. They catch with a fishing rod and a donkey.

Also during the season (spring and July-September), Lake Balkhash is rich in crucians, carps, catfish, asps. And there are also snakeheads here. This is a very scary-looking fish, but very tasty. Fans of fishing in Balkhash should also know about marinka fish, or kara-balyk. She is poisonous, or rather her caviar, milk, and black films on her abdomen. And marinka meat is very fatty and tasty. Recreation areas also offer underwater fishing.

Fishing on Lake Balkhash

A calm, peaceful atmosphere on the banks of the Balkhash or the river flowing into it and a rich catch are annually invited here by hundreds of fishermen from Russia. Both an avid angler and an amateur will get a good rest here.

Where to stay on Lake Balkhash

Travelers will find a large selection of places to stay while relaxing on the lake. These are recreation centers, and sanatoriums, and the private sector.

The most affordable option is tourist bases and holiday homes in villages located on the coastline. This:

• Torangylyk,
• Chubar-Tubek,
• Rembaza,
• Shubartubek and many others.

Living conditions here are modest. The room is located in a wooden house without amenities. Shower, toilet, washbasin are shared. The price in such a house is 150 rubles per day for one person.

A higher level of accommodation awaits the tourist in the hotel. For example, the Doszhan hotel offers everything you need for comfort, there is also satellite TV, a beach, sports grounds, and a gym. A double room in such a hotel will cost 500-1000 rubles.

The most comfortable accommodation can be found in the Riva Lepsy recreation area. There are all amenities, three meals a day, mud procedures, peeling, massage. Guests can entertain themselves with water skiing, billiards, dancing. There is a playground with inflatable pools. The price ranges from 600 rubles to 2000 for two, depending on the season.

If you are interested in life local residents, you can stay on vacation in private housing in small towns and villages located on the coast and not far from it. Tourists are always welcome here. You can rent a small room in the owner's house, a whole house or a yurt. It will cost from 200 rubles per person per day.

Treatment at Balkhash

Lake Balkhash is ready to provide not only rest, but also treatment, which is facilitated by good weather throughout almost the entire year. Sanatoriums have been built here. The treatment is based on the strengthening properties of salt water, as well as mud rich in minerals and hydrogen sulfide. To this is added the clean air of the steppe, enriched with mineral salts. Such treatment can be obtained in sanatoriums on Lake Balkhash.

One of the most famous sanatoriums is Balkhash. Located in the city of Priozersk, offers mud therapy and balneotherapy. Treatment in this sanatorium, located a hundred meters from the lake, can be successfully combined with beach holiday. The sanatorium is equipped with three buildings: sleeping, sports, medical.

There are many health-improving procedures in the sanatorium, ranging from hydrotherapy and inhalations to massage and various special examinations. There are procedures included in the price of the tour, as well as children's treatment. The cost of a ticket, depending on the category, ranges from 29,000 to 49,000 rubles.

The Balkhash dispensary is also widely known among tourists. There are many visitors to this sanatorium every year, as the rest here is also comfortable. The cost of the ticket is from 27,000 rubles.

Video: Disaster on Lake Balkhash

Fresh review

This review about Review will be large, and perhaps not the most interesting, but I think it's quite beautiful. And it will be about greenery and flowers.

The Balkans in general and Bulgaria in particular are generally quite green areas. And the pastoral views here are gorgeous. But in the city of Obzor, greenery is mainly in parks, although there are also vegetable gardens, as you can see in the middle of this report. And at the end a little about wild nature in and around the city.

At the entrance to the city from the side of Varna, there is a chic flower bed, which is very difficult to see on the go. But on foot it turns out that "Overview" is written there in colors, moreover, in some kind of stylized Slavic font.

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To the question Why is half of the water in Lake Balkhash fresh and half salty? given by the author forget-me-not the best answer is Balkhash is a drainless semi-fresh water lake in the eastern part of Kazakhstan, the second largest non-drying salt lake (after the Caspian Sea), the thirteenth largest among all the lakes in the world. The lake is located at an altitude of 340 meters above sea level, the surface area of ​​the lake is over 18,000 km2, and the length is over 600 kilometers. Like all lowland lakes, its depth is small and averages only about 5 meters, the maximum is 26 m.
Balkhash is unique, and its uniqueness lies in the fact that it is semi-fresh water, that is, the eastern half of the lake is salty, and the western half is almost fresh. They are separated by the narrow isthmus of Uzynaral, only 4 kilometers wide, due to which the water almost does not mix and has such a bright salinity contrast.
Many rivers flow into the Balkhash, the largest of them is the Ili, one of the largest rivers in Asia, the largest river in Semirechye, carrying its waters for almost one and a half thousand kilometers from the Tien Shan ranges. Or - the second factor determining why the western half of the lake is fresh. The remaining rivers are small, the largest of which are Lepsy, Karatal and Aksu.
There is a legend about the origin of the lake, according to which the rich sorcerer Balkhash had a beautiful daughter, Ili. When the time came to give Or in marriage, Balkhash announced that he would marry her only to the richest, most beautiful and strongest. Among the grooms who arrived were two sons of the Chinese emperor with caravans loaded with expensive goods, the sons of the Mongol Khan with herds of horses and silver, as well as young Bukhara merchants with carpets and ivory products. However, among those who wished to try their luck was the poor shepherd Karatal, who immediately liked the bride.
After the competition, from which Karatal emerged victorious, Balkhash indignantly kicked him out. However, Ili ran away from her home at night and rode away with her chosen one from her evil father. Having learned about the escape of his daughter, Balkhash cast a spell on his beloved, and they turned into two rivers, swiftly carrying their waters from the mountains. And so that the rivers would never connect, Balkhash fell between them and became a lake gray from the foamy waves.

Currently, Lake Balkhash is rapidly becoming shallow and polluted. Salt water is becoming more and more, because the volume of the lake is decreasing. The reason is the increase in water withdrawal from the Ili River by users, and the main runoff-forming part of the basin is located in China. As a result, Balkhash began to receive two times less than the previous volume of water and, according to environmentalists, it is threatened with the fate of the practically disappeared Aral Sea. Despite the large number of agreements signed by the countries of Central Asia, the problems of transboundary watercourses are not being resolved. After a long ten years of continuous consultations between Kazakhstan and China, the contours of the forthcoming process of water allocation for transboundary watercourses have only been outlined.
Animal world lakes are very diverse. First of all, like all the steppe lakes of Kazakhstan, Balkhash impresses with a variety of birds, the white swan - business card lakes. Also here you can meet white pelicans, pheasants, golden eagles and others. There are 20 species of fish in the waters of Balkhash. Among them, 5 species are commercial. Thanks to this diversity, fishing and hunting tours have become widespread in Balkhash.