Islands of Lake Balkhash
Open-knowledge reference entry
Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan was formed due to uneven subsidence of the Turan plate and flooding of the formed depressions presumably in the second period of the Cenozoic era. Elevated areas of the plate formed many small and several large Islands.
In total, there are 43 Islands on lake Balkhash, covering 66 square km. The Islands of Basaral, Tasaral, Ortaaral, Ozinaral, and Algazi are the most important and largest of the Balkhash Islands. There are few Islands in the salty part of Balkhash. Therefore, the current name of the lake comes from the word "Balkh" of the Tatar, Kazakh and South Altaic languages, which means "hummocks in the swamp".
Description
The island of Algazy is one of the largest and is located in the middle part of Lake Balkhash, stretched from North-West to South-East for 7 kilometers, width from 1 to 3 kilometers, area of about 13 kilometers square. To the North of the island is the Baigabyl Peninsula. The island is separated from the North shore by a Strait 1.5 kilometers wide, and from the South by a Strait about 4 kilometers wide. The coast is flat, the North-Western part is most elevated, the absolute height is 366 meters above sea level.
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