Aydingkol ( Uyghur: , , ), Aydingkul (Mongol) or Ayding () is a

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

in the

Turpan Depression The Turpan Depression or Turfan Depression, is a fault-bounded trough located around and south of the city-oasis of Turpan, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in far Western China, about southeast of the regional capital Ürümqi. It includes L ...

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

PR China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. At 154 m below

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

, it is the lowest point in China. This lake is now totally dried, and very muddy and salty.

History

In ancient times, Ayding Lake was known as ''juéluòwǎn'' (觉洛浣). The Uyghur derived name ''Aydingköl'' means "moon lake", due to the lake having a layer of white salt along its edge, giving the appearance of a shining moon.

Geography

The lake is located in the south

hinterland Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his ''Handbook of Commercial Geography'' (1888). Originally the term was associate ...

of the Turpan Depression, approximately 35 kilometres away from the city of

Turpan Turpan (also known as Turfan or Tulufan, , ug, تۇرپان) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 632,000 (2015). Geonyms The original name of the cit ...

. From east to west, the lake spans 40 kilometres; the north-south span is 8 kilometres; and the total area of the lake is 200 square kilometres. The lake was formed from the formation of an

orogeny Orogeny is a mountain building process. An orogeny is an event that takes place at a convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An '' orogenic belt'' or ''orogen'' develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted ...

of the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...

249 million years ago, and once held approximately 5 million square kilometres of inland sea, which at one time surged up and became vastly extended. During the winter of 1948, the lake basin was once filled with

freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...

, which primarily originated from melted snow water from the mountains, as well as supplementary

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

; owing to the lesser use of water to

irrigate Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been develo ...

cultivated land during the winter, the water level was higher. During the summertime, the water level declined as a result of increased use of irrigation water for

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

, as well as significant natural

evaporation Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase. High concentration of the evaporating substance in the surrounding gas significantly slows down evaporation, such as when h ...

. Due to the expansion of farming in the region, the population using water from the lake subsequently increased, and by 1958 the lake only held up to 22 square kilometres, with a water depth of about 0.8 metres. As of 2000, except for the southwest region, little lakewater remained, and the entire lake area has become a saltpan, with the centre of the lake holding

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel ...

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

s, and no longer holds any native birds. During times of intense sunshine,

mirage A mirage is a naturally-occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays bend via refraction to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French ''(se) mirer'', from the Latin ''mirari'', meanin ...

s can often be seen. Nowadays, Ayding Lake has a salt mill, which uses the region's

alum An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double sulfate salt of aluminium with the general formula , where is a monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium. By itself, "alum" often refers to potassium alum, with the ...

salt crystals and

saltpeter Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate Salt (chemistry), salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ...

raw materials to manufacture chemical products. Scenic tours also run near the lake. On 24 July 2015, a new China-wide high temperature record was set at a meteorological station near Aydingkol, with a temperature of 50.3 °C (122.5 °F).

References

Lakes of Xinjiang Lakes of China Former lakes of Asia {{Xinjiang-geo-stub

History

Geography

See also

References