lake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...
in
Karkaraly District
Karkaraly District (, ) is a district of Karaganda Region in central Kazakhstan. The administrative center of the district is the town of Karkaraly. As of 2019, the district is home to a population of 36,025 people.
Geography
Karasor, an endorheic ...
,
Karaganda Region
Karaganda Region (; ) is a region of Kazakhstan. Its capital is Karaganda. The region borders Akmola and Pavlodar Region to the north, Abai Region to the east, Jetisu, Almaty, and Zhambyl Regions to the south, and Kostanay and Ulytau regio ...
,
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...
.
The lake is located to the NNE of
Karkaraly
Karkaraly (, ''Qarqaraly'') (, ''Karkaralinsk''), also known as Karkaralinsk, is the capital of the Karkaraly District in the Karaganda Region of Kazakhstan. Permanent settlement in the area began as a Cossack settlement, which evolved into a ...
city. The nearest inhabited places are Karabulak to the southeast,
Yegindybulak
Yegindybulak (, ''Egindibulaq'') is a settlement in Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan. It is the administrative center of the Yegindybulak Rural District (KATO code - 354851100). Population:
History
The Koyandy Fair, a large ann ...
to the east by
Mount Ku
Mount Ku () is a mountain massif in the Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan.''Nature of Kazakhstan: Encyclopedia'' / General editor. B. O. Jacob. - Almaty: "Kazakh Encyclopedia" LLP, 2011. T.Z. - 304 pages. ISBN 9965-893-64-0 (T.Z.), ...
, and Koyandy village to the NW of the northwestern lakeshore. The lake is an
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
under threat.
Geography
Balyktykol is a heart-shaped lake in the central/eastern
Kazakh Uplands
The Kazakh Uplands or the Kazakh Hummocks, known in Kazakh as the ( , ; ), is a large peneplain formation extending throughout the central and eastern regions of Kazakhstan.
. It lies at the eastern end of the
Karasor Basin
The Karasor Basin (; ) or Karasor Depression, is a Depression (geology), depression in Karkaraly District, Karaganda Region, Kazakhstan.Google EarthJilili Abuduwaili, Gulnura Issanova, Galymzhan Saparov. ''Hydrology and Limnology of Central Asia ...
and to the south of Saumalkol, surrounded by low hills. The lakeshores are low and gently sloping in the northwest and in the east, but in the remaining stretches they are rocky, with steep cliffs. There is a long and wide peninsula in the southeast dividing the southern part into two bays. The bottom of the lake is sand and mud.
The water of Balyktykol is fresh but hard. The lake is fed by snow, rainfall and underground water. The Ozdenbay River flows into the lake from the north and the Taldy flows from the south and bends westwards close to the NW lakeshore heading towards lake Karasor. The highest water level is in April during the spring floods, and the lowest usually in October. The lake freezes in November and thaws in April.
Google Earth
Google Earth is a web mapping, web and computer program created by Google that renders a 3D computer graphics, 3D representation of Earth based primarily on satellite imagery. The program maps the Earth by superimposition, superimposing satelli ...
Flora and fauna
There is
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the tropical and subtropica ...
sedge
The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...
s. In some areas meadows are fringing the banks with
fescue
''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...
,
spear grass Spear grass or speargrass is the common name of numerous herbaceous plants worldwide including:
Poaceae (grasses)
*'' Aciphylla'' spp.
*''Aristida'' spp.
*''Heteropogon contortus''
*''Imperata cylindrica''
*'' Piptochaetium''
*''Poa'' spp.
*''Stipa ...
Caragana
''Caragana'' is a genus of about 80–100 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, native to Asia and eastern Europe.
They are shrubs or small trees growing tall. They have even-pinnate leaves with small leaflets, and solitary or cl ...
'' growing tall. Every year at the lake there is a large concentration of migratory birds. The main fish species in the lake are
crucian carp
The crucian carp (''Carassius carassius'') is a medium-sized member of the common carp family Cyprinidae. It occurs widely in northern European regions. Its name derives from the Low German ''karusse'' or ''karutze'', possibly from Medieval Lat ...
and
common bream
The common bream (''Abramis brama''), also known as the freshwater bream, bream, bronze bream, carp bream or sweaty bream, is a European species of freshwater fish in the family Leuciscidae. It is now considered to be the monotypic, only speci ...
.Balyktykol Lake - BirdLife Data Zone /ref>
See also
*
List of lakes of Kazakhstan
Excluding the northernmost districts, Kazakhstan consists of endorheic basins, where rivers flow into one of the numerous lakes. The most important drainage system is known as Yedisu, meaning "seven rivers" in Turkic languages. Below is a list o ...