Nature · Bukhara District
Jeyran Ecocentre
A breeding centre bringing back desert wildlife
Nature · Olot District
Lake Dengizkul
A brackish lake without outflow in Olot District, a state sanctuary since 1973 and a Ramsar wetland of international importance for waterbirds since 2001.
Photo: Umid1108 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
About the lake
Dengizkul lies in a tectonic basin in the far south of the region, 181.5 m above sea level. It is fed by drainage-canal water and field seepage, and in flood season the Taykyr branch of the Zarafshan reaches it. In 1987 the lake was 43.3 km long and covered 267 km². Its water is brackish, with a layer of common salt on the bed.
The lake has been known since the Middle Ages: the 10th-century Arab geographer Ibn Hawqal marked it on his map as Bahr al-Bukhara, the 'Bukhara Sea'. Pelicans, pygmy cormorants and spoonbills occur here, and up to 5,000 endangered white-headed ducks spend the winter.
Sources (3)
Photos
