Ubiquitously Uzbekistan – The Kyzylkum Desert and Lake Aydarkul
We would be going to Bukhara on a private car in a five-hour drive from the Syyod Camp. We bid farewell to the staff at the camp and headed over to see the two wonders of Uzbekistan: the Kyzylkum Desert and Lake Aydarkul.
Its sheer size might be deceiving. Lake Aydarkul is actually an artificial lake, and properly considered, it is truly a Soviet-era wonder. According to the Feel the Orient website, “The entire system occupies an area of 4 thousand square kilometers and consists of three brackish lakes – Aydarkul, Arnasay and Tuzkan.” Meaning “turquoise seas in the sand,” the Aydarkul truly does live up to its name.
The lake has induced some changes to the ecosphere in Uzbekistan. The main and most notable change has been its effects on the replenishment of water in the Aral Sea, which will be discussed in a later entry. Suffice to say, the water being brackish in this lake (as opposed to being saline), it has “high rates of evaporation, prompting a moist summer microclimate, often attracting rain clouds,” this in turns drives the rehydration of the North Aral Sea (Wikpedia).
How the Lake Aydarkul Artificial System of Lakes Came into Being
The Aydarkul is a behemoth of a manmade phenomenon. In 1969, a raging flood descended upon the area and created the necessity to tame the water. According to the Wikipedia, “between February 1969 and February 1970 almost 60% of the Syr Darya’s average flow (21 km3) was drained from the Chardarya Reservoir into the Arnasay lowland. In such a way new lakes were made. Since 1969 the Aydar Lake has regularly received the waters of the Syr Darya River when they overflow the capacity of the Chardarya Reservoir. This has gradually filled up the natural cavity of Arnasay lowland to create the largest lake of Central Asia excluding its long western border, the Caspian Sea.”
The Kyzylkum Desert
The whole of Kyzylkum Desert spans across the three countries of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. Meaning “red sand,” the desert covers an area of about 298,000 km2 as the earth’s 15th largest desert. Buried in this large expanse of sand is a once-glorious history. In the early A.D. centuries, this area was actually fertile agricultural land, where the kingdom of Khorezm found its footing. Indeed, even today there is quite a bit of vegetation in the desert, including floral growth.
Desert tours at the Kyzylkum Desert would naturally involve long camel rides. Those who are interested may also see the fortress ruins of the Khorezm kingdom on guided tours. We preferred hiking the Nuratau Mountains instead, so we did not do the desert tour.
At the Sandy Shore of Lake Aydarkul
We could feel the desert weather as our car approached a part of Kyzylkum Desert that abuts Lake Aydarkul. The air was notably arid and the temperature was high. We walked freely on the sandy shore of Lake Aydarkul.
The experience of walking in the Kyzylkum shores of the Aydarkul lake was almost the same as walking along any sandy beach by the ocean. Except that there was a noticeable sense of desolation. Surely, there was lifeform in the desert, but perhaps not in the sense of living creatures that flew, crawled, swam or ran. At almost all beaches, one would be able to observe the movement of living creatures. Even a lone seagull or a small school of fish would bring forth a moment of joy.
At the lakeshore of Aydarkul, the only movement seemed to have been the waves at the lakeshore and nothing else, save for the meandering footprints of two curious visitors for that day. No, even the footprints would disappear into this destitute. There was so much sand that engulfed any kind of human signature on its form. We made our steps and the sand filled right in after us.
There was a tent overlooking the lake and we sat down for our takeout lunch. It was a humble but delightful light meal from the Syyod Camp and we enjoyed the food. The wind was blowing hard though, fanning both the sand and the heat at us. We spent about an hour at this desolate lakeshore. Although it is known that laden beneath this enormous expanse of sad there are deposits of gold, uranium, copper, aluminum and silver, natural gas and oil, we decided that Bukhara would be much more interesting. So we headed back to our car and continued with our journey.
Sources
Feel the Orient on Lake Aydarkul.
The Wikipedia on Aydar Lake.
The Wikipedia on the Kyzylkum Desert.