Lake Kuyucuk
lake in Arpaçay, Kars Province, Turkey
Lake Kuyucuk (Turkish: Kuyucuk Gölü), is a small shallow lake located in Arpaçay district of Kars Province in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. It has an area of 245 ha (2.45 km2) and a maximum depth at 13 m (43 ft). The lake area is an internationally recognized Ramsar site, important for its ornithofauna, and a tourist wildlife reserve.
Geology
The Kalkankale Formation, consisting of old sandstone, mudstone and claystone dating back to early Pliocene period, underlies wide areas at Lake Kuyucuk and the surrounding landscape, and forms the flat and low-sloped terrain of the region. Elevations north of the lake are formed by agglomerate, tuff and andesite of early Pliocene old Kura volcanic rocks while the southwestern elevations are formed by tuff, andesite, pearlite, pumice and obsidian of Dumanlıdağ pyroclastic rocks.
Topography
Büyükalamet Heights 1,676 m (5,499 ft), Küçükalamet Heights 1,657 m (5,436 ft), Kızılgüney Heights 1,646 m (5,400 ft) and Uzungüney Heights 1,660 m (5,450 ft) in the north, Alaca Heights 1,693 m (5,554 ft) in the west and Cadalı Heights 1,772 m (5,814 ft), Yumru Heights 1,656 m (5,433 ft) and Mevzili Heights 1,655 m (5,430 ft) in the southwest are the elevations around the lake making up the landscape's topography.
Flora
At an elevation of 1,627 m (5,338 ft), the lake region has two ecosystems, steppe and wetland. The wetland flora are free-floating aquatic plants from the duckweed family (Lemna), common reed (Phragmites australis) and rushes (Juncus) while the steppe flora are shrubs and herbs (Astragalus, Onobrychis), vetches (Vicia), daisy (Artemisia), common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and alsike clover (Trifolium hybridum).
The globally threatened plant species grass (Elymus sosnowskyi), which is endemic to Turkey, grows here.
Fauna
Lake Kuyucuk is a wetland site for at least 233 bird species, and is a Ramsar site designated as of international importance in 2009, stretching over an area of 416 ha (4.16 km2).
The public source identifies “Lake Kuyucuk” as lake in Arpaçay, Kars Province, Turkey. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lake, Kuyucuk and lake.
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The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17515431. Authority coordinates are 40.739, 43.454. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lake Kuyucuk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.