Lake Balkhash (Kazakhstan): recreation, fishing, photos and videos, where Balkhash is located on the map. Amazing Lake Balkhash Where is Lake Balkhash located on the world map

Balkhash is like Baikal, only in Central Asia. The same shape of an irregular crescent, the same dissimilarity of the lands on different sides of the lake, the same aspirated “sea” in the terminology of the local residents. Balkhash is also famous for the fact that these are actually two lakes - the western half is fresh, and the eastern half is salty. Like Baikal, Balkhash has its own “poisoner”, and a much more severe one - the Balkhash Mining and Metallurgical Combine, a full-cycle copper plant, the second largest in the former USSR after Norilsk. The copper mines of Balkhash, scattered along the northern coast for 250 kilometers, from Kounrad to Sayak, were discovered in 1928 by Mikhail Rusakov, and the plant and the city with it were built by prisoners in 1931-37, delivered on a turnkey basis. They didn’t particularly bother with the name: the city was named Balkhash and in 1973 was included in the copper Zhezkazgan region, where it was almost equal to the regional center (100 thousand versus 122 thousand). Nowadays 70 thousand people live here (31% Russians), but despite the loss of a third of the population, Balkhash seemed to me one of the most comfortable and prosperous in Kazakhstan.

About the city, lake and suburbs - the next part of the journey through the Great Steppe. And starting from this post, instead of “I” there will be “we” - a day earlier, in Karaganda, she joined me darkiya_v , who left Moscow 10 days later than me.

There is a night train from Karaganda to Balkhash, and either we were lucky, or it’s always like this here, but the train turned out to be surprisingly civil, approximately at the level of fast non-branded Russian Railways trains - and after the Arkalyk and Zhezkazgan clunkers, it was the height of comfort! The Karaganda-Semipalatinsk train passes through Balkhash every other day, a train runs from Zhezkazgan once a week, but you can’t get to Alma-Ata without a transfer. Waking up in the morning and leaving the compartment, I saw a green geometric plane outside the window - this is the edge of Betpak-Dala, or the Hungry Steppe. It was not possible to shoot much through the extremely dirty windows - here is just a shot of some remote stop (wasn’t this where Buranny Edigei worked?). There is a problem with station architecture in Kazakhstan (except for the Tashkent Railway) - in principle, it only exists in big cities; during the entire trip I did not see a single, not even beautiful, but simply remarkable station at small stations:

Half an hour before arrival, the Balkhash residents begin to peer into the steppe, waiting for the pipes to appear. This is what the Balkhash Mining and Metallurgical Plant looks like from the road, and they say when the wind blows on the city, it smells of sulfur. On our visit, unfortunately or fortunately, the wind carried copper fumes into the steppe:

If in Zhezkazgan the railway runs along the southern outskirts, in Balkhash - along the northern. Moreover, there are two stations within the city limits. First - Balkhash-1, also known as Old Balkhash - a station from the late 1950s, followed by a block of three-story Stalin buildings, perhaps even pre-war ones (I couldn’t take pictures). Here the train stops for 20 minutes:

As I understand it, Balkhash-1 is mainly a freight station, and Old Balkhash serves as a town for railway workers:

Halfway between the two stations is the entrance to the city from the highway, the main national highway Alma-Ata - Astana. Entry is via an overpass over the railway, the beginning of which is marked by two charming fish, popularly nicknamed Erlan and Nurlan:

And finally the Balkhash-2 station, entirely for passengers, with a huge and repulsively ugly station from the 1980s. I would venture to guess - this is the largest station in the Karaganda region, in addition, equipped with a high platform. Why exactly here, given the insignificance of traffic, I don’t dare to guess:

The center is about two kilometers from here. For some reason I remembered that the bus station should be next to the station, and we went there on foot - the first thing we needed to do was find out the bus schedule for Sary-Shagan, from where we had a train to Alma-Ata in the evening. We asked for directions from a Kazakh peasant passing by, he thought and thought, and then suddenly greeted another peasant passing by, obviously a friend, and asked him to accompany us. During the 20-minute journey, he managed to tell a lot about the vicissitudes of life in Kazakhstan - in general, in prosperous Balkhash, people are much more nostalgic for the Union than in many much poorer cities. But only when we approached the station and said goodbye to the peasant, we discovered that he was not coming here and had deviated from the route specifically to see us off.
This is what the Mukhamedzhanov and Shashubai microdistricts located between the train station and the bus station look like (unlike Zhezkazgan and Arkalyk, the microdistricts here are not numbered, but named) - a Soviet city under the White Sun of the desert:

A small and very civilized bus station stands opposite the Central Market, and there we learned that there will be three passing buses to Sary-Shagan (about 16, 18 and 21), the ride takes an hour and a half, tickets are available upon arrival. From there, minibuses went to the nearest villages - for example, to Kounrad with a giant quarry, or to Shashubai on a peninsula in the middle of the lake. I had seen enough of the industry, and we decided to go to Shashubai... so everything that I will show below, in fact, we examined in reverse order.
The bazaar separates the bus station from the central Independence Square, which is decorated with a monument to Agybay Batyr:

Despite his medieval appearance, Agybai Konyrbayuly is a character from the 19th century, a comrade-in-arms of Kenesary Khan, with whom he fought against the Russians, Uzbeks and Kyrgyz for the restoration of Kazakh independence, and continued the war for several years after Kenesary’s death - until 1849. When it became clear that the Russians could not be defeated, and most of the Kazakhs did not really want to, he abandoned military affairs and, having received something like an amnesty from the tsarist authorities, lived quietly in the distant steppe until 1885. Monuments to “fighters against tsarism” in Kazakhstan are quite rare - from the places where I have been, I can only remember offhand. Agybay is immortalized here also because he was born on Balkhash and spent his old age.

The square is bounded by Karamende-bi Street (I wish I knew who it is), behind which Social City begins. Opposite the monument to Agybay, Karl Marx Boulevard descends to the lake:

The social city in the “Malenkovsky” version of Stalinism on Balkhash is colorful. In the blocks on both sides of Marx Boulevard - it is quite monumental and with oriental motifs characteristic of Kazakhstan:

And on other streets and courtyards you seem to be returning to the 1960s:

It's not even a matter of the landscape (the streets here are pretty shabby), but the atmosphere itself - everything here is somehow simple, simple, understandable, understandable. Just like in those dusty books about Soviet pioneers. I am not able to convey this in a photograph - but this feeling became the most vivid in Balkhash-city (i.e., not counting the lake):

There are also many artifacts preserved here, which, however, you get used to very quickly in Kazakhstan:

And a characteristic feature of local architecture is these wooden canopies:

Now let's return to Marx Boulevard - its length is about a kilometer, and its high number of storeys, monumentality and well-groomed appearance gives the feeling that we are in a big city:

The boulevard descends to Lenin Street (toponymy in Kazakhstan, with the almost complete eradication of Ilyich monuments, remained Soviet in most cities), behind which is the really huge Palace of Metallurgists named after Khamzin:

Distinguished by very good sculptures - pay attention, by the way, to the clearly Kazakh appearance:

Behind the palace there is a rather neglected park, a monument to Michal Rusakov, a T-34 tank...

Victory Memorial (where for some reason we forgot to go)...

And finally - Balkhash! It is difficult to describe in words the delight that you experience on the shore of the water going to the horizon after two weeks of wandering through the steppes and deserts, where most of the rivers can be forded, and the “big” Tobol and Ishim are already Moscow rivers. Here Balkhash is an even larger sea than Baikal in water-rich Siberia.

From the pier to the right you can clearly see the BGMK chimneys spewing out dense smoke, and the lonely Chechenka rock is not a dump, as it might seem, but a remnant:

It's better to look to the left. The thick “sea green color” is not photoshop or a shooting defect, Balkhash really is like this:

From here you can clearly see a rock with the ruins of something, a broken pipe and a metal “torch”, which I noticed on the road to Shashubai:

And on the way from Shashubai, Darkiya and I decided to climb it. It is about 3 kilometers from the center, so it is better to go by bus. There is a sign near the road:

The history here is more interesting than it seems - initially, in 1931, the village of Pribalkhashsky arose here, and an experimental processing plant worked on a hill near the lake - its pipe is visible from afar. The copper ore of the Balkhash deposits had a rather specific composition, and here they were looking for a way to extract the metal from it most productively, obtaining a decent result only by 1935. At the same time, a plant was built on the other side of the bay, which reached full capacity in 1937-38. There was no longer a need for an enrichment plant, the inhabitants of Pribalkhash moved to the socialist city - so all that remained of the factory was a pipe and foundations on a slope:

The memorial opened in 1978, and now it is a rather pitiful sight. Particularly impressive is the staircase, the steps of which are at a noticeable angle to the horizon - that is, apparently it was supported on metal supports, which were then stolen, and now just lie on the slope. The feeling of climbing it is very strange:

But the view from there is amazing! Nowhere else, except perhaps the river, have I seen water of such a pleasant color. Balkhash simply caresses the eye:

Let's look at the city from right to left. Here is the center - the Metallurgists Palace of Culture and the pier. Boats - fishing, departmental and pleasure boats; there has been no passenger navigation on Balkhash for a very long time:

But late-Soviet Balkhash, complete with a lake and smoke from the plant, is very reminiscent of:

And finally, the Balkhash Mining and Metallurgical Combine itself, stretched along the peninsula for 4 kilometers. A rather rare case is a full-cycle copper plant (and as you know, the copper production cycle is very complex), and I think it’s the largest plant in all of Kazakhstan. About a third of all investments in the industry of the Kazakh SSR were allocated for its construction in the 1930s:

Chechen Mountain. Most of the plant are rather squat workshops, so it is difficult to assess its true scale from afar; it is best visible on the map, surpassing the city itself in size:

Another feature: if in Russia the largest copper deposits are mainly copper-nickel, then in Balkhash they are copper-molybdenum. And molybdenum is a metal, firstly, irreplaceable, secondly, very expensive (about $32 thousand per ton), and thirdly, in short supply in the former USSR - more than half of reserves and production are in the USA. In the Soviet Union, the largest molybdenum deposit was in Armenia, where production was established in 1942 - just like, not because of a good life: the Nazis cut off the railway to the Caucasus.

In general, there is a lot of everything in copper ore - lead, cadmium, chromium, nickel, arsenic... Copper metallurgy is the dirtiest industry (examples -,), and here it is visible to the naked eye:

So we’d better not look at the plant anymore. To the left is the Zub Peninsula. Although Balkhash stands on Bertys Bay between two larger peninsulas, locals only know it as a “peninsula”.

I still haven’t figured out what that hill is in the distance:

At the exit from Bertys Bay there is a long and low Green Island:

We ourselves are at the beginning of a large peninsula on the eastern side of Bertys Bay. There is its tip - on the cape there is the village of Rembaza, where buses go every 2-3 hours, but we went to Shashubai - it is also on this peninsula, but (relative to the frame) to the left, and faces the open lake:

And here we are on the shore - the waves are splashing, the seagulls are screaming... Behind us is the dusty steppe. Now I regret that I did not taste the water - I was afraid of some kind of infection. As already mentioned, in fact, Balkhash is two lakes that are separated by the Saryesik Peninsula and the Uzun-Aral Strait: Western Balkhash is 58% of the area, Eastern Balkhash is 54% of the volume. Balkhash divides the endless steppes of Sary-Arka and Betpak-Dala on the one hand and Semirechye on the other, and as the name implies, all the rivers flow into it from the south. In the east these are small Ayagoz, Lepsy, Aksu and Karatal, and in the west - huge by Kazakh standards Ili. But nothing flows out of Balkhash - it is the world's largest closed lake. To some extent, the Uzun-Aral is also a river through which water from the fresh Western Balkhash continuously flows into the salty Eastern Balkhash, which it leaves only in the form of steam. So, why talk about “taste it” - although everywhere it is indicated that Western Balkhash is fresh, the locals already in the evening told us that the water here is salty. In general, with an area of ​​18 thousand square kilometers (almost half the size of Baikal) and a length of 604 kilometers, Balkhash is the 13th largest lake on Earth and the 2nd in the former USSR (after Baikal, as well as the untimely dried up Aral Sea, which used to be larger than both of them). But it wasn’t deep - no more than 26 meters, but on average 5-6 meters.

We walked a little around Shashubai - a dusty village or suburb with extremely annoying dogs and quite urban, but no less extremely curious inhabitants:

For some reason we decided to walk along the lake, came across a small industrial area and began to try to get around it, for which we climbed straight along the red coastal rocks:

At some point it became clear that we couldn’t go any further, but there was almost a staircase leading up. We climbed out into some closed area, a vacant lot behind barbed wire, and I remembered a well-known folk saying that driving tied up in the trunk at night means big trouble. However, apparently, the industrial zone is abandoned, and the thorn is a relic:

48.

(this and the following photos are by Darkia)

We passed another hill - and this view opened up to us, calm and majestic. We found a secluded rock and talked for a long time. I didn’t want to leave: the damp warm wind, the splash and shine of the waves - peace...

And the landscapes here are completely different than even near Zhezkazgan. This is the real Central Asia, a dusty and hot semi-desert. Along which we walked back to the city, along the way we photographed a characteristic Kazakh cemetery, about which there was a separate post. This is what the city looks like from the steppe, and the plant here seems like nothing more than an eerie mirage:

And in the city we went to the bazaar and bought a kurt and shubat there. Kurt are small balls of hard and dry salted cottage cheese, very filling, and therefore were the favorite food of nomads. Shubat is even cooler than kumiss, a fermented milk drink made from camel milk. The barmaid girl, before pouring, shook the 10-liter jar properly (a good shubat should be foamy), and when she turned the lid, there was a natural explosion: the lid ricocheted off across the entire room, and the girl was noticeably hit in the hand. Afterwards we joked about the bottle of shubat: “Don’t drop it, it will explode!” We went by bus to the Sary-Shagan station, from where, completely unplanned, we got to Priozersk - the “capital” of the Sary-Shagan missile test site. But more on this in the next part.

My other posts about Kazakhstan -

The unique endorheic semi-freshwater Lake Balkhash is the second largest non-drying salt lake (after the Caspian Sea) and the thirteenth on the list of the largest lakes in the world. Its uniqueness lies in the division of the water area by a narrow strait into two parts, in which the water has different chemical characteristics.

Where is Lake Balkhash located?

This very beautiful lake is located in the east of Kazakhstan. It is located on the territory of three regions - Almaty, Karaganda and Zhambyl. Lake Balkhash has the shape of a boomerang.

The strait divides the reservoir into two approximately equal parts. In its western part the water is fresh, and in the east it is salty. This composition of water is unique. Scientists believe that Lake Balkhash is a remnant of an ancient sea that was once located in the Alakol depression.

Features of the lake

Most tourists who come to Kazakhstan every year are interested in: “Where is Lake Balkhash?” Those who come to the country on a tourist package should not worry about this. Almost all excursion routes begin from this place.

All guests in Kazakhstan are told a beautiful legend about how Lake Balkhash appeared. We will tell it to you too.

In ancient times, in those places where Lake Balkhash flows its waters today, there lived a rich and powerful Bai Balkash, who was also a sorcerer. He had an only beautiful daughter. When she grew up, her father decided to marry her off, which he immediately announced to the whole world and announced a competition for applicants. Among the noble participants in the competition was the poor shepherd Karatal. It so happened that the girl fell in love with him. Or she helped her beloved young man win.

However, Balkash did not want to give his daughter to the poor guy. The young people decided to escape. The angry father cursed his obstinate daughter and turned her and her chosen one into rivers. So that they could never be together, Balkash himself rushed after them and turned into a huge lake, separating the lovers forever. The Ili River flows into Lake Balkhash, as does Karatal.

Lake Balkhash has been studied by specialists from all over the world for more than a hundred years. However, it still remains unexplored. It amazes scientists with its mystery.

Lake Balkhash, a photo of which can be seen in all tourist advertising brochures in Kazakhstan, stretches over six hundred kilometers in length, and its maximum width is seventy kilometers.

Rivers

Various rivers of Semirechye flow into this amazing lake - Ili, Aksu, Karatal, Koksu, Lepsy, Ayaguz, Tentek. The Karatal River is formed at the confluence of the Shizhe, Karoi and tributary Koksu rivers. They rapidly carry clean waters from the mountains of the Dzungarian and Trans-Ili Alatau and Tarbagatai. In the western part of the lake there is the largest river flowing into Lake Balkhash - Ili. It makes up more than 80% of the total watercourse. In the eastern part, smaller rivers (Aksu, Karatal, Lepsy, Ayaguz) flow into the lake.

Mysteries of the lake

Scientists consider it a geographic paradox that this huge lake is located in the middle of a desert with a continental climate and yet has no drainage. There are five climatic zones in this territory. The lands near the lake are highly saline. At the same time, the vegetation here is quite diverse. The salt of the lake has healing properties and is used for many diseases.

Another mysterious feature of Balkhash is its unique ability to combat sediment. The rivers of Semirechye have high levels of clay and sand. Such conditions would ensure that the Balkhash basin would be completely filled with sediment within three centuries. But the lake is independently cleared of these elements, fenced off by river deltas that hold back the flow of sediment.

In deltas, rivers descend from the mountains and are divided into many branches and channels. Then lakes are formed that accumulate sediment. In this case, the water is completely purified to complete transparency.

Scientists were unable to find chemogenic sediments in the lake. Carbon dioxide typically forms and accumulates in deep-sea lakes due to wind-driven drift currents. Carbon dioxide in this case is a product of the decomposition of organic matter. In shallow Balkhash, constant wind mixing is recorded, so there is no carbon dioxide here.

Rest on Lake Balkhash

Today Lake Balkhash, the photo of which you see in our article, attracts tourists from near and far abroad. It should be noted that today excellent conditions for recreation have been created here. There are many recreation centers equipped with everything necessary for a comfortable pastime.

"Blue Lagoon"

This is a wonderful recreation center where anyone who wants to relax on the beach on the lake can stay. Comfortable rooms are equipped with air conditioning, refrigerators, televisions, satellite TV. Deluxe rooms have a separate bathroom, shower, and washbasin.

Many tourists note the well-organized food in the modern spacious cafe with forty seats. Here you can relax on the summer terrace in a shady alley or on the observation deck, located a few steps from the beach.

Vacationers are offered a varied menu. All dishes are prepared by chefs of the highest categories with extensive experience. At the request of guests, they can prepare dishes to order.

Recreation center "Volna"

It is located near the city of Balkhash. It is designed for 30 vacationers. The residential complex consists of five comfortable houses. They are insulated from the inside and covered with decorative panels.

2-, 3-, 4-bed cozy rooms are equipped with air conditioning and independent heating. There is a bar and a Russian bathhouse on the territory of the base. For those who come to Balkhash for fishing, the services of a guide and a boat are offered. Corporate evenings and birthdays are held at the Volna recreation center. Here you can have fun with your colleagues.

"Pearl"

This is one of the most picturesque corners on the shores of Lake Balkhash. Those who are tired of the city noise and bustle like to stay here. The recreation center "Pearl" is located 3 kilometers from the center of Balkhash.

Here you will find everything you need for a comfortable stay: spacious luxury and junior suite hotel rooms, parking, a restaurant and bar, a magnificent banquet hall. Those interested can visit the sauna and soak up the warm sands of the beach.

Boarding house and recreation center "Aquamarine"

The boarding house and base of the same name are located in the village of Chubar-Tubek. It is very close to Lake Balkhash. There is a cafe and free parking (for guests) on site.

The boarding house has its own sand and pebble beach, which will allow you to enjoy the gentle sun. Many water sports can be enjoyed here.
At the recreation center, tourists are offered to stay in a 2-story building, in double and triple comfortable rooms.

Fishing

Lake Balkhash is very popular among fishing enthusiasts. More than 20 species of fish live here. The most common ones are:

• Balkhash Marinka;
• Ili Marinka;
• Balkhash perch;
• spotted sponge;
• single-colored sponge.

The remaining species of fish that are found in Balkhash are introduced. These include thorn and carp, eastern bream and Siberian dace, tench and pike perch, osman and asp and others.

Fishing on Lake Balkhash is carried out in different ways. The most popular fishing is from boats. Although in some places you can quite successfully catch small carp from the shore. For more serious fish, you need to go by boat.

There are sections of the lake with significant depths relatively close to the shore. Most often these places are located near islands. Here you can catch small pike perch using a spinning rod.

The asp, which has taken root well in the lake, is the second most important fish for spinning anglers. It is caught using castmasters, spinners, and wobblers. You can count on an active bite for this fish in the fall.

Bream and carp are most often caught from boats. Although you can catch large carp from the shore using bottom gear. But, however, it does not always approach the coastline. The same can be said about bream. Usually this fish is pre-fed.

Fishing on Balkhash is no less interesting for those who like catfishing. It is also produced from boats. They catch it using bottom gear, sometimes using the quok fishing method.

You need to know that in addition to summer fishing, winter fishing is also popular on Lake Balkhash. The ice here reaches such a solid thickness that you can easily navigate it by car. Winter night fishing is especially interesting. At this time, you can see many glowing tents on the ice. Using them you can determine the place where the school of fish is located. In winter, white fish, pike perch, and local perch are well caught.

Spearfishing becomes an interesting adventure for many guests. It is important that in order to take part in this exciting entertainment, it is not necessary to have professional equipment. All you need to do is take your underwater gun, masks and snorkels with you. Most submarine fishermen began to spend their holidays on Lake Balkhash.

Fishing on Lake Balkhash will give true pleasure to fishing lovers, as well as to those who want to relax in nature.

Hunting

Hunting enthusiasts also have great opportunities here. In the area adjacent to the lake, hunting for foxes, wild boars, gray ducks, hares, wolves, pheasants, as well as coots and mallards is permitted.

Lake Balkhash is located in east-central Kazakhstan, in the vast Balkash-Alakol basin at an altitude of 342 m above sea level and 966 km east of the Aral Sea. Its total length reaches 605 km from west to east. The area varies significantly, depending on the water balance. In years when the abundance of water is significant (as at the beginning of the 20th century and in 1958-69), the area of ​​the lake reaches 18,000 - 19,000 square kilometers. However, during periods associated with drought (both at the end of the 19th century and in the 1930s and 40s), the lake's area is reduced to 15,500-16,300 km2. Such changes in the area are accompanied by changes in water levels of up to 3 m.

Surface topography

Lake Balkhash is located in the Balkhash-Alakol basin, formed as a result of the degradation of the Turanian plate.

On the water surface you can count 43 islands and one peninsula - Samyrsek, which makes the reservoir unique. The fact is that thanks to this, Balkhash is divided into two separate hydrological parts: the western, wide and shallow, and the eastern part, narrow and relatively deep. Accordingly, the width of the lake varies from 74-27 km in the western part and from 10 to 19 km in the eastern part. The depth of the western part does not exceed 11 m, and the eastern part reaches 26 m. The two parts of the lake are united by a narrow strait, Uzunaral, with a depth of about 6 m.

The northern shores of the lake are high and rocky, with clear traces of ancient terraces. The southern ones are low and sandy, and their wide belts are covered with reed thickets and numerous small lakes.

Lake Balkhash on the map

Lake food

The large Il River, flowing from the south, flows into the western part of the lake, and it contributed 80-90 percent of the total inflow of water into the lake until hydroelectric dams built in the late 20th century reduced the volume of the river's inflow. The eastern part of the lake is fed only by small rivers such as Karatal, Aksu, Ayaguz and Lepsi. With almost equal levels in both parts of the lake, this situation creates a continuous flow of water from the western to the eastern part. The water in the western part was almost fresh and suitable for industrial use and consumption, while the eastern part had a salty taste.

Seasonal fluctuations in water level are directly related to the amount of precipitation and melting snow, which fill the beds of mountain rivers flowing into the lake.

The average annual water temperature in the western part of the lake is 100C, and in the eastern part - 90C. The average precipitation is about 430 mm. The lake is covered with ice from late November to early April.

Animal and plant life

The lake's previously rich fauna has declined significantly since the 1970s due to declining water quality in the lake. Before this deterioration began, the lake was home to 20 species of fish, six of which were unique to the lake's biocynosis. The rest was artificially stocked and includes carp, sturgeon, eastern bream, pike and Aral barbel. The main food fish were carp, pike and perch of Balkhash.

More than 100 different species of birds have chosen Balkhash as their habitat. Here you can see great cormorant, pheasant, egrets and golden eagles. There are also rare species listed in the Red Book:

• whooper swans;
• Dalmatian pelicans;
• Spoonbills

Willows, turangas, cattails, reeds, and reeds grow on the salty banks. Sometimes you can find wild boar in these thickets.

Economic significance

Today, the picturesque shores of Lake Balkhash are increasingly attracting tourists. Holiday homes are being built and camping areas are being developed. Vacationers are attracted not only by clean air and calm water surfaces, but also by healing mud and salt deposits, fishing and hunting.

Beginning in the first half of the 20th century, the lake's economic importance grew significantly, primarily due to fish farming, which began in the 1930s. Regular sea communications with a large cargo turnover were also developed.

The next big step towards the economic prosperity of the region was the construction of the Balkhash copper refinery, around which the large city of Balkhash grew up on the northern shore of the lake.

In 1970, the Kapshaghai hydroelectric power station began operating on the Il River. Diversion of water to fill the Kapshaghai Reservoir and provision of irrigation reduced the river's flow by two-thirds, and caused the lake's water level to drop by 2.2m between 1970 and 1987.

As a result of such activities, every year the waters of the lake become dirtier and saltier. The areas of forests and wetlands around the lake have shrunk. Unfortunately, to date, practically nothing has been done to significantly change such a deplorable situation.

Lake Balkhash is one of the natural attractions of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is rightfully considered the property of all the people. It is located in the eastern part of the country on the territory of three regions: Almaty, Karaganda and Zhambyl. On the northern side of the reservoir there is the Kazakh small hills, on the western side - Betpak-Dala, and on the southern side there are the Chu-Ili mountains, the sands of Saryesik-Atyrau and Taukum.

Balkhash is a semi-freshwater closed lake. This never-drying salt lake is second only to the Caspian Sea in size. In the list of the largest lakes in the world, Balkhash is located in an honorable thirteenth place.

The lake is divided into two parts by a narrow strait. Surprising is the fact that the water in these two parts differs in chemical composition. In the western part of the strait, the lake water is almost fresh, and in the eastern part it is salty.

The shape of the lake strongly resembles a crescent. Its length is about 600 km and its width is from 9 to 74 km. The total area of ​​Balkhash reaches 16.4 thousand square meters. km. The following rivers flow into the lake: Ili, Aksu, Lepsy, Karatal and Ayaguz. Translated from the Tatar language, the name of the lake “Balkhsh” is translated as “swampy, tussock-covered area.”

Until the 1970s, when the Kapchagai hydroelectric power station dam was built on the Ili River, which formed the Kapchagai reservoir, the lake was famous for the purity of its water and the richness of its fauna. When the reservoir was filled, the water balance of the lake was disrupted. The water level dropped by more than 2 m.

Today the lake is home to such species of fish as asp, roach, bream, crucian carp, perch, asp, catfish, carp and pike perch. The shores of Balkhash are excellent for hunting. Here you can hunt greylag geese and ducks, mallards and coots. Hares, foxes, wolves and pheasants are also found.

Lake Balkhash is famous as a popular place for recreation and water sports - kayaking and canoeing, sailing and sport fishing.

Balkhash (Balkash; Kazakh Balkash) is an endorheic semi-freshwater lake in the Balkhash-Alakol basin in the southeast of Kazakhstan, the second largest perennial salt lake (after the Caspian Sea) and 14th in the list of the largest lakes in the world.

The uniqueness of the lake lies in the fact that it is divided by a narrow strait into two parts with different chemical characteristics of the water - in the western part it is almost fresh, and in the eastern part it is brackish.

Its area at low standing water is 17.5 thousand square meters. km, with a higher one up to 19 thousand sq. km. Average length 600 km. Balkhash lies at an altitude of 340 m near the sea. Balkhash, an endorheic lake, receives the rivers Ili, Karatal, Ak-su and others. According to natural conditions, Balkhash is divided by the narrow Uzun-Aral Strait into a western relatively shallow reach (up to 11 m), which receives the river. Or, desalinating this entire part of the lake, and the eastern deeper reach (up to 26.5 l), separated by the indicated strait, its water is salty. Thus, in hydrochemical and biological terms, Balkhash is a fresh-salt mixotrophic heterogeneous lake.

The first researcher of Balkhash, who laid the foundation for its hydrological and biological study, was L. S. Berg. His expedition (equipped by the Geographical Society) descended in 1903 to Balkhash along the river. Or, for the first time, established the presence of fresh water in the western part of the lake, compiled a map of the lake and provided scientific coverage of the history of this wonderful reservoir. In Soviet times, it was studied in detail by P. F. Domrachev (1931).

Balkhash lies among the Zhambyl, Karaganda, Taldy-Kurgan and Almaty regions of Kazakhstan. It has a horseshoe shape and extends from west to east. To go around Balkhash, you need to travel a distance equal to the distance from Leningrad to Crimea. The length of the lake is 595 km; at its widest point it is 71 km, but almost everywhere it is much narrower.

The southern banks are low; in the western part they represent the dry sandy plain of the old river delta. Or, crossed by the dried beds of its former sleeves. Further, along the reed-covered shores of the lake, stretches a ridge of low sandy hills, behind which the Sary-Ishikotrau sand desert stretches to the south and east. Only in the east does the coast rise. In the north, the Bedpak-Dala desert and the spurs of the Kazakh folded country approach the lake.

Nowadays, Balkhash is no longer a deserted and wild place, as during the expeditions of L. S. Berg and P. F. Domrachev. The city of Balkhash is located on the northern shore, and a number of villages have appeared. From the west, the Mointy-Chu railway runs along Balkhash, its branch goes to the city of Balkhash. The waters of the lake are plied by steamships making voyages along the entire lake, and dozens of fishing boats. Balkhash collects water from the spurs of the Tien Shan, Trans-Ili and Dzungarian Alatau. Its largest tributary is the river. Ili (1300 km) flows into the lake in the southwest. The drainage area of ​​Balkhash is 176.5 thousand square meters. km.

The Ili River carries the bulk of fresh water into the lake; it is abundant and is little subject to level fluctuations. It is this that desalinizes the entire western, shallower section of Balkhash, in which mineralization only gradually increases from 500 mg/l with distance from the river mouth to 1500 mg/l towards the Uzun-Aral Strait. The remaining tributaries of Balkhash: Karatal, Ak-su, Lepsa and Ayaguz are shorter and have less influence on the chemical regime of the lake. All of them flow into the eastern salty, deeper part of the lake, where salinity ranges from 3500 to 5000 mg/l of water.

The lake level is subject to long-term periodic fluctuations, possibly associated with the changing abundance of tributaries starting at the snows of the Tien Shan. During periods of high water, the lake level rises by 2.75 m and it becomes fresher. Level changes occur approximately once every 40 years.

Balkhash is shallow (average depth 6 m), and in the hot climate of Central Asia its water is heated to 27-30° in the summer months. Balkhash does not freeze every year. The lake is quite rough and the waves on it are significant.

Due to the exhaustion of silt from the bottom, the water of the lake is slightly transparent and has a greenish-whitish color. Kazakhs call Balkhash “Ak-Deniz”, which means “White Sea”. But on calm days, in deeper places, the lake takes on a clear emerald blue hue and transparency increases (up to 4.5-5 m). The oxygen regime of the lake is quite satisfactory; there is no stagnation of water anywhere.

The shores of Balkhash are sandy for most of their length. The deserts surrounding the lake turn along its shores into smooth, far-underwater beaches of sand, strewn with fragments of shutter shells. In some places the sand is silted and a thick wall of reeds grows along the southwestern and southern shores. The latter not only grows in the water, but in some places it also comes ashore. A mass of fragments of old stems, dry leaves and reed roots litter the shore.

There are wild boars in the thickets. There are a lot of waterfowl, there are entire colonies of pelicans. About 40 years ago there was a tiger on the coast of Balkhash.

Stony and rocky littoral soils are more common along the northern and eastern shores near bedrock rock outcrops.

The deeper bottom is lined at first with dark, and in the main basin with light gray, highly siliceous, with a large admixture of diatoms, silts.

Fauna and flora of Lake Balkhash

The fauna of the lake is not rich, but it uniquely reflects its mixed hydrochemical regime.

Zooplankton counts:

• 5 types of protozoa,
• 28 rotifers,
• 11-cladoceran and,
• 6 species of copepods.

In the open lake, in the western, fresher part, rotifers are found:

• 2 types of keratelli,
• small trichocerca (Trichocerca pusila),
• chromogaster turtle,
• pompholyx grooved,

and from crustaceans:

• diaphanodome,
• leptodora,
• Cyclops Leukart,
• thick cyclops (Cyclops crassus),
• the diaptom is thin and,
• salt diapt.

To the east, the number of halophilic forms, especially the salt diaptom, increases; salt-loving rotifers of the genus Pedalia and the crustacean Ceriodaphnia reticulum appear. The number of crustaceans (without rotifers) is significantly higher in the desalinated part (over 50 thousand/m 3 of water) than in the saline eastern part (17.3 thousand/m 3 of water). E.F. Manuilova (1940), who studied the zooplankton of Balkhash, described an interesting daphnia (Daphnia balchaschensis), which changes its shape depending on the salinity of the water.

In the western fresh part of the lake, the Balkhash daphnia had a long tail spine and a high curved helmet, while at the same time this crustacean from the salty areas of the lake was round-headed with a short spine. These changes are similar to the seasonal changes in “summer” and “winter” daphnia lakes in the north, but they occur simultaneously in parts of the lake with different salinity.

Algal plankton in the west in summer consists of melosira and ceratium; in more saline areas, blue-green nodularia spumigera and diatoms develop: chaetoceros and amphipora (I. A. Kiselev).

The lake's benthos also reflects its chemical heterogeneity. There is a complete extinction of mollusks in the lake, caused by an increase in its salinity. Now there are no mollusks in Balkhash, but at its bottom and along the banks there are many shells of freshwater species common to Siberia - pond snails (4 species), reels (2 species), shutters, bitinia, lake peas.

The overwhelming majority of the bottom population of the lake consists of tendipedid larvae. Of the 24 forms of Balkhash larvae, the larvae of Tendipes salt-loving predominate everywhere; the second place, especially in the eastern regions, is occupied by Protenthes; in the fresher part of the lake, many Cryptochironoma and Procladium are also found. The emergence of bell mosquitoes on the lake is of a massive nature and occurs sequentially; Protenthes is the first to complete its metamorphosis (in June-July), followed by the mass emergence of Tendipes saline and already in August, Cryptochironoma occurs.

The biomass of Balkhash benthos is low. In the western part - 0.6 g, in the eastern part 0.7 g/m 2 of the bottom. The weight of benthic organisms is higher towards the end of winter, when the biomass increases approximately threefold.

1 - Balkhash marinka, 2 - sloth fish, 3 - carp, 4 - Balkhash perch, 5 - Aral thorn

In such a large lake as Balkhash, only 5 species of fish were previously found:

• two species of marinka (Schizothorax pseudoaksaiensis and Sch. argentatus),
• large Strauch's loach (Nemachilus strauchi),
• sponge fish (Nemachilus labiatus) and,
• Balkhash perch (Perea schrenki).

Occasionally from the river. Or Polyakova's minnow (Phoxinus poljakowi) comes in. Fish grow slowly, marinkas feed on aquatic plants, loaches feed on coastal invertebrates, and perch feed on predatory fish.

Currently, the ichthyofauna of Balkhash has been enriched with new, more valuable species.

The beginning of Balkhash fish farming was involuntarily laid by the amateur fish farmer F. Bogdanov, who bred carp from the lake near the city of Verny (Alma-Ata). Issyk-Kul. In 1905, after the dam broke, part of the fish from his pond went into the river. Almatinka, through it to the river. Or to Balkhash. Since 1913, carp has become the most common fish in Balkhash. Its catches in our time amount to 50-60 thousand centners per year. As is known, the carp feeds mainly on tendipedid larvae.

In 1933 in the river. Or a thorn was released from the Aral Sea. Now it is already caught in western Balkhash, reaching a length of more than 1 m and a weight of over 9 kg. In Balkhash, the thorn feeds on loaches and perch. Bream has been introduced into the lake, and Siberian dace has also appeared in it. Thus, the fish fauna of Balkhash has become more complete, and therefore the feeding capabilities of this large reservoir are better used.

In the Balkhash depression lies a number of salt lakes, many of which, like Ala-Kul, previously undoubtedly formed one whole with Balkhash and, being separated from it, quickly underwent salinization.

In total, about 70 self-sedating lakes have been identified in the Balkhash region. Among them there are chloride lakes, sulfate lakes containing mainly mirabilite and thenardite, and most often there are mixed lakes, where the salt mass consists of table salt and sodium sulfate. In the lake Kokdombak 48 km from the station. Bertys under a thin layer of table salt and a layer of silt lies high-quality gypsum. Many of the lakes are suitable for industrial exploitation.
So, for example, from lake. Tersakkan (west of Balkhash) fish factory and Balkhash local plant receive table salt. Good quality table salt is mined in the lake. Kashka-Teniz near the Chu-Mointy railway station.

A more ancient connection is established near the lake. Balkhash with the lakes of the Alakul depression lying further to the east, near the border with China. Lake Ala-Kul (2300 sq. km) is one of the largest lakes in Kazakhstan. Its low-lying banks are overgrown with reeds, among which there are many water birds.