Lake Balqash

Lake Balkhash (Kazakh: Балқаш Көлі, Balqash kóli) is located in Kazakhstan. It is one of the largest lakes in Asia and 15th largest in the world (en). It belongs to a Central Asian endorheic basin shared by Kazakhstan, China, and Kyrgyzstan. Water moves from the basin to Balqash via seven rivers. The most important one is the Ili River. Water in the Ili River comes from melted snow from the mountains of China's Xinjiang. The name of Lake Balkhash is the word balkaš, which in Turkic languages means “swampy area” (or marshland). History The first Europeans to receive information about the lake were William of Rubruk (en) and Pian del Carpine (en) in the 13th century. In 1886, Russian researcher Ivan Mushketov (en) wrote the book “Turkestan”, in which he wrote all the known information about Lake Balkhash. In 1903-1904, the Russian Geographical Society (en) explored the lake, the leader of the study was Lev Berg (en). Geography Lake Balkhash is a large, closed, and slightly saline lake. It is located in the arid (dry) zone of Central Asia on southeast of Kazakhstan. Saryesik peninsula, located in the middle of the lake divides it into two parts that are different from each other. Its length is 605 km, its width varies from 9 to 19 km in the east parts and up to 74 km - in the western. The lake borders four regions: Almaty Region, the southeastern part of Karaganda Region, southwestern part of East Kazakhstan Region and eastern - Zhambyl Region, as well as the northwestern part of the province Xinjiang of China. Climate The climate in the lake area is semi-desert. The average temperature in July is about 24 °C (75.2 °F), in January about -8 °C. Precipitation averages 120 mm per year. Relative air humidity is 55-60%. The average annual wind speed is about 4.5-4.8 meters per second. The surface water temperature ranges from 0 °C (32 °F) in December to 28 °C (82.4 °F) in July; at depth it changes little (temperature difference is no more than 3.3 °C). The lake freezes every year; the ice usually lasts from November to March-April. References