Ogurja Ada (sometimes also spelt "Ogurga") is the largest island in both

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

and the

Caspian Sea The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...

by area. Ogurja Island is also widely known by its

Russian name East Slavic naming customs are the traditional way of identifying a person's family name, given name, and patronymic name in East Slavic languages, East Slavic cultures in Russia and some countries formerly part of the Russian Empire and the ...

Ogurchinskiy Island ''(Ostrov Ogurchinskiy)''.

Geography

Ogurja is a

desert island An uninhabited island, desert island, or deserted island, is an island, islet or atoll which lacks permanent human population. Uninhabited islands are often depicted in films or stories about shipwrecked people, and are also used as stereotypes ...

that lies not far from the coast in the southeastern Caspian Sea. It is located 17 km SSW of the southern tip of the Cheleken Peninsula. Ogurja Ada is very long and narrow. It runs from north to south, having a length of 42 km and a maximum width of 1.5 km. It is made up of low sand dunes, mostly covered with grass and bushes. The northern end, which was formerly a compact mass, was broken up into smaller islets by wave action. The island has no permanent settlements owing to the lack of fresh water. Between the 15th and the 17th centuries, Ogurchinskiy was a refuge for pirates and wayfarers and, later, was a

leper colony A leper colony, also known by many other names, is an isolated community for the quarantining and treatment of lepers, people suffering from leprosy. '' M. leprae'', the bacterium responsible for leprosy, is believed to have spread from East ...

. Administratively Ogurja Ada belongs to the

Balkan Province Balkan Region () is the westernmost of the five regions of Turkmenistan. Clockwise from north it borders Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan (north); two provinces of Turkmenistan (east), Iran (south), and the Caspian Sea (west). The capital city is Balkana ...

(Balkan Welaýaty) of Turkmenistan.

Environment

Caspian seals ''(Pusa caspica)'' and varied marine birds inhabit the island. Ogurja Ada is part of the Hazar Nature Reserve of Turkmenistan. The island has been designated 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 ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports breeding colonies of

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

s and

tern Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genera in a subgroup of the family Laridae, which also ...

s. There is an isolated resident population of

Chukar partridge The chukar partridge (''Alectoris chukar''), or simply chukar, is a Palearctic upland Upland game, gamebird in the pheasant family Phasianidae. It has been considered to form a superspecies complex along with the rock partridge, Philby's partrid ...

References

External links

Bird life
Islands of the Caspian Sea Balkan Region Islands of Turkmenistan Important Bird Areas of Caspian Sea islands Important Bird Areas of Turkmenistan {{Turkmenistan-geo-stub