Oleshky Sands is a

semi-desert A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a desert climate. There are different kinds of sem ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

inland from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

. It consists of

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat ...

s or ''kuchuhury'' (locally), which are up to five meters high. Sparse vegetation can be located across the sands.

Origin

The sands are thought to be formed during the most recent

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

aeolian processes Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets). Winds may erosion, erode, transport, and deposit ...

accumulating and forming cliffs of lower parts of nearby River

Dnipro Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...

. It is speculated that the amount of vegetation was reduced by herds of sheep who were introduced there by who used the sands, formerly populated by weeds, as a

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

. In modern times the area has become the Oleshky Sands National Nature Park.

Geography

The Oleshky Desert is located in

Kherson Raion Kherson Raion (; ) is a raion (district) of Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. History Kherson Raion was created on 18 July 2020 as part of the reform of administrative divisions of Ukraine. The center of the raion is the city of Kherson. The city of Ole ...

Kherson Oblast Kherson Oblast (, ; ), also known as Khersonshchyna (, ), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) in southern Ukraine. It is located just north of Crimea. Its administrative center is Kherson, on the northern or right bank ...

, 30 km (~20 mi) east of

Kherson Kherson (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and , , ) is a port city in southern Ukraine that serves as the administrative centre of Kherson Oblast. Located by the Black Sea and on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, Kherson is the home to a major ship-bui ...

. Before the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

annexation Annexation, in international law, is the forcible acquisition and assertion of legal title over one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. In current international law, it is generally held t ...

of the

Crimean Khanate The Crimean Khanate, self-defined as the Throne of Crimea and Desht-i Kipchak, and in old European historiography and geography known as Little Tartary, was a Crimean Tatars, Crimean Tatar state existing from 1441 to 1783, the longest-lived of th ...

at the end of the 18th century, the territory belonged to the nomad Nogai Hordes, particularly the Djambuilut Horde. No detailed historical information about the region has survived. The closest populated settlement is seven kilometers away (~4.5 mi). In Soviet times the sands were used as an

Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...

bombing range for pilots of the

Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact (WP), formally the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance (TFCMA), was a Collective security#Collective defense, collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw, Polish People's Republic, Poland, between the Sovi ...

alliance. To this day there is a possibility of finding some

unexploded ordnance Unexploded ordnance (UXO, sometimes abbreviated as UO) and unexploded bombs (UXBs) are explosive weapons (bombs, shell (projectile), shells, grenades, land mines, naval mines, cluster munition, and other Ammunition, munitions) that did not e ...

Environment

Due to its temperature and the amount of precipitation, the area is sometimes described as a semi-desert. Oleshky Sands are around across and are surrounded by a dense

afforestation Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no recent tree cover. There are three types of afforestation: natural Regeneration (biology), regeneration, agroforestry and Tree plantation, tree plan ...

, planted to prevent dunes moving. Due to its density, the forest often catches fire. Although a relatively small sandy steppe, the Oleshky Sands have

sandstorms A dust storm, also called a sandstorm, is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions. Dust storms arise when a gust front or other strong wind blows loose sand and dirt from a dry surface. Fine particles are transport ...

. They occur as the type of the sand is very fine and is easily picked up by a wind. The intensity of the sandstorms is rather weak. Beneath the sands, at a depth of around , there is an underground lake, which forms an essential part of the local environment.

References

External links

Oleshky Sands overview
— Seven Wonders of Ukraine.
Video footage of the desert
a video footage of the desert is provided by a blog-site of the local adventurers to familiarize the world with Ukraine.

an excellent blog-site of Anna Stepankova with plenty of pictures and explanations. The problem might be with a language barrier as the site is in Russian, but the amount of pictures presented defeats that issue.
Odesa Club of the extreme automobile touring
all pictures with vehicles driving across country areas.

more pictures of sand dunes.
Three days through a forest, two - across fields
a travel story through the Oleshky Sands with pictures.

, a reflection story about the desert. Interviews with local scientists, historical research, other.
An informational site about underground waters in the area
* {{Deserts Geography of Kherson Oblast Dunes of Europe Deserts of Ukraine

Origin

Geography

Environment

See also

References

External links