The Saryesik Atyrau Desert ( kk, Сарыесікатырау, ''Saryesıkatyrau'') is a desert in the

Balkhash-Alakol Basin The Balkhash-Alakol Basin or Balkhash-Alakol Depression( kk, Балқаш-Алакөл ойысы; rus, Балхаш-Алакольская котловина), is a flat structural basin in southeastern Kazakhstan.

,Балхаш-Алакольская котловина
''

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...

'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. (in Russian) eastern

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

. It stretches for about 400 km south of Lake Balkhash. It is a sand desert, relatively ecologically healthy with little erosion. There are a great number of small lakes and ponds in the desert, as well as occasional grasslands, that support a varied animal and bird population. In September 2017, English explorer Jamie Maddison completed a 70-mile, 30 hour ultra-marathon to make the first recorded on-foot crossing of the desert.

Nature

The Saryesik-Atyrau Desert borders the

Ili River The Ili ( ug, ئىلى دەرياسى, Ili deryasi, Ili dəryasi, 6=Или Дәряси; kk, Ile, ; russian: Или; zh, c=伊犁河, p=Yīlí Hé, dng, Йили хә, Xiao'erjing: اِلِ حْ; mn, Ил, literally "Bareness") is a river si ...

delta in the west, which is home to a large wild boar population. The wild boar are mainly found in the reed beds, but enter the fringes of the desert. Here they are often found around karabarak bushes. The desert itself is home to goitered gazelles and a small population (about 150) of the Saiga antelope. The

Asian wild ass The onager (; ''Equus hemionus'' ), A new species called the kiang (''E. kiang''), a Tibetan relative, was previously considered to be a subspecies of the onager as ''E. hemionus kiang'', but recent molecular studies indicate it to be a distinc ...

('' Equus hemionus kulan'') however, is extinct in the area.Hartmut Jungius (2010).
Feasibility Study on the Possible Restoration of the Caspian Tiger in Central Asia
'. WWF

References

Deserts of Central Asia Deserts of Kazakhstan {{Kazakhstan-geo-stub