Karakum desert (Turkmenistan): description, features, climate and interesting facts

The sandy desert of Karakum (Turkmenistan) is the largest in Central Asia and one of the largest on our planet. Its territory is vast. This is ¾ of the total area of Turkmenistan. Where is the Karakum Desert? It occupies the territory located between the foothills of Karabil, Vanhyz and Kopetdag in the south, and also in the Khorezm lowland in the northern part of the country. In the east, its territory borders on the Amu Darya valley, and in the west - with the Uzboi river bed.

Geography

The Karakum desert is Asia, stretching almost 800 km along the parallel and 450 km along the meridian. The total area of this sandy sea is more than three hundred and fifty square kilometers. This exceeds the size of countries such as Italy and the United Kingdom. It is interesting to compare the Karakum Desert with similar natural formations. The Turkmen sand sea is on the list of the largest. Those who want to know which desert is more - Kalahari or Karakum, it is worth bearing in mind that the natural formation of Africa is almost twice as extensive. Its area is 600 square kilometers.

The Karakum Desert is diverse in its relief, geological structure, soils and vegetation. In this regard, scientists divide it into the South-East, Lowland (Central) and Zaunguz (Northern) zones. These three parts of the desert distinguish one from another origin, weather conditions, and also the degree of economic development.

Northern Karakum

The Zaunguz part of the Turkmen sandy sea has the oldest geological structure. Scientists believe that the formation of the Northern Karakums occurred more than a million years ago. This is the most elevated part of the territory, towering over the rest of the 40-50 km. Such an arrangement gives grounds to call the Northern Karakum Plateau. However, this is not true due to the too large dismemberment of this zone, on which are located kyri - meridially elongated sandy ridges, reaching a height of 80-100 m, between which there are enclosed hollows.

Groundwater, lying in the northern Karakum, mostly salty. This does not allow full use of these areas for pastures. In addition, the local climate is much more severe than in the other two zones.

From the north-west, the Zaunguz Karakum restricts the relatively well-preserved ancient bed of the Western Uzbei. In the southern part, this desert zone is cut off by a ledge, the height of which ranges from 60 to 160 meters. This curving chain of blinders, takyrs and sandy hollows stretches from the Amu Darya and in the west it reaches Uzboy. About how these mysterious depressions were formed, it is still unknown. According to some scientists, the edge of the Zaunguz Uplift was formed due to accumulation of salts that waved and destroyed natural rocks. Other researchers believe that this relief is an ancient little preserved channel of the Amu Darya.

South-East and Central Karakum

These territories are low, with absolute elevations ranging from 50 to 200 m. Where the Karakum desert passes from one zone to another, it is for certain unknown. After all, the boundary between these parts is very conditional. But denote it by the branch line of Tengzhen Chardzhou.

In its landscape, the Southeast and Central Karakum differ from the Northern part by a more flat structure. This, as well as the location of rich year-round pastures and a lot of freshwater wells on these territories, allowed them to be used more intensively in the economic plan. The relatively long period without frosts, the location near large cities and the high value of the sum of positive temperatures contribute to the development of these zones.

Climate

What is the Karakum? This is a vast territory, on which there are sharp daily temperature differences in air masses. In general, the climate of this desert is classified as sharply continental. And the average temperature in January in the north is fixed at minus five degrees, and in the south - plus three. In July, the same column of the thermometer rises from 28 to 34 degrees. But that's interesting. Due to the diurnal air changes, the Karakum Desert is considered one of the hottest on our planet. This is due to the fact that in the daytime in many of its parts the column of the thermometer rises to plus fifty degrees and higher. As for the soil, then it is much warmer. Sometimes the temperature of sand reaches eighty degrees.

Winter in the Karakum desert is characterized by severe frosts. In this season in the sandy sea the thermometer's column drops below thirty degrees.

As for the precipitation, they are very scarce here. During the year in the north of the desert, their number reaches 60 mm, and in the south - 150 mm. The rainy season in Karakum is the period from November to April. At this time, up to seventy percent of the annual rainfall rate falls here.

origin of name

In translation from the Turkmen language, "kara-kum" means "black sand". But this name does not correspond to the truth. The Karakum desert does not have black sand. The name of this natural formation is most likely due to the fact that ninety-five percent of its territory is covered to some extent by vegetation, which in summer loses its green color. The remaining five percent of the desert are sand dunes. Their name in Turkmen sounds like "ak-kum". In translation, this means "white sand".

There is another version of the origin of the name of the Turkmen desert. Scientists believe that the word "black" is purely symbolic and means a territory that is not adapted to life, hostile to man.

Archaeological discoveries

According to the researchers, the Karakum desert was inhabited by humans in the fourth millennium BC. Settlements of ancient tribes were discovered by scientists in an oasis near the delta of the already existing Murgab River. This part of the territory attracted people even in later centuries. Even at the end of the third millennium BC, when a vast area from Greece to India was engulfed by a severe drought, residents of Northern Syria or Eastern Anatolia moved to this oasis.

Even more significant discovery was made by scientists in 1972. The archaeological expedition headed by VI Sarianidi discovered in the Karakum desert the ruins of the ancient temple city of Gonur-Depe, which in Turkmen means "gray hill". This settlement was a grandiose complex erected from a stone, in the center of which there were temples of Sacrifices, Fire and other structures. On the perimeter, all the buildings were enclosed by powerful walls, on top of which there were square towers. In this city came the inhabitants of the ancient country of Margush to worship the fire.

After the discovery of Gonur by the archaeological expedition of Sarianidi, traces of another two hundred settlements were found. At the same time, scientists argue that Margush in previous times was not inferior in importance to Mesopotamia, Egypt, China or India.

However, at the end of the second millennium BC, people had to leave this fertile oasis in search of a more abundant source of water. The sands later simply took notice of the traces of the once powerful civilization, which some scholars tend to regard as the first bearer of Zoroastrianism.

Education version

The Karakum Desert was formed relatively recently. So, the age of its Zaunguzsky site is about one million years. This is significantly less than the age of the Namib Desert, which has existed for 55 million years.

The western part of the Karakum is even younger. It was formed from the steppes only 2-2,5 thousand years ago.

What geological ancestry does the Karakum Desert have? On this account, scientists have two hypotheses. According to one of them, put forward by mining engineer AM Konshin, the formation of the desert occurred on the territory of the ancient dried-up Aral-Caspian Sea, which was part of the prehistoric Tethys ocean.

According to the second hypothesis, according to the majority of scientists, the territory of the Karakums was formed thanks to the rivers Murghab, the Amu Darya and many others who carried clay, sand and other products from the destruction of the mountain rocks of the southern ridges of the Kopetdag Mountains. This process took place at the beginning of the Quaternary period. At this time, the cooling cooled sharply to warming, and the melting glaciers contributed to the fact that the rivers became swift and full-flowing. This theory was confirmed by further studies of geologists.

Flora and fauna

The amazing world of the Karakum Desert is interesting for those researchers who constantly strive to expand their horizons. The sandy sea of Turkmenistan is the place where only sun-loving representatives of flora and fauna are concentrated, able to live in the absence of a large amount of moisture.

The Karakum desert was chosen by several dozen different species of reptiles and not one thousand species of arthropods. Comfortably in this area, there are three dozen species of birds and two hundred and seventy species of plants. They consider the desert to be their home, which means that there is something mysterious and unknown to the man himself.

Vegetation

A variety of shrubs grow on the sandy territory of the Karakum. Among them are black and white saxaul, cherkez, kandym and astragalus. There is also a sandy acacia. Of the grass cover in the desert, the most swollen sedge, there are saxaul, saltwort, ephemeral and other communities.

Xerophytic shrubs and semi-shrubs grow on the plots of arid Karakum plains. Many of them have no hardwood cover or they drop it after drought.

The roots of plants growing in the desert are branchy and long. They are forced to penetrate to great depths. For example, a camel thorn. Its root system deepens into the sandy ground for more than twenty meters.

Plants of deserts reproduce by seeds, which, as a rule, are pubescent or have original wings. Such a structure facilitates their movement in the air. Many of the plants of the Karakum Desert easily take root even when they get into mobile soils. Particularly distinguished tugai. This is a thicket of white willow and poplar, giant cereals, a comber and other moisture-loving plants that can be found on the banks of the Karakum Canal.

Animal world

There are many in the desert of Karakum and fauna. They are animals well adapted to exist in sandy areas. Most of them prefer to lead a nocturnal life, and also are able to do without water for a long time. In addition, the animals that can be found in the desert are magnificent runners. They can easily travel long distances.

From representatives of mammals in the Karakum, you can find a wolf and a jackal, gazelle and gopher, a steppe and barkhan cat, a jerboa and a fox-corsac. The world of reptiles here is represented by lizards and cobra, sand barrels and snake-arrows, agams and steppe turtles. In the sky above the sandy sea fly desert crows and larks, saxaul jays and sparrows, as well as brown finches.

From invertebrates in this territory there are scorpions, phalanges, beetles and karakurta spiders. In the Amu Darya, the Karakum Canal and in the reservoirs, there are more than fifty species of fish, among which there is a carnivorous silver carp and a white cupid.

The Desert Cat

The trot from the Karakum desert deserves special attention. It is often called a caracal. Indeed, these animals are similar in their habits. However, the usual lynx can not survive in a desert where there is no forest. For the caracal, these territories are a home. And this is not surprising. The desert beast is painted in a light brown color, which allows it to be almost invisible among the foothills and sand dunes. The main food of the caracal are birds, rodents and lizards.

Between what is the desert of Karakum, which is the habitat of this amazing beast? These are areas from the Aral Sea to the Caspian Sea. But, unfortunately, the development of these territories has led to a catastrophic decline in the number of desert cats, and today there are only about 300 individuals left in natural conditions.

Repetek Reserve

It is advisable to begin acquaintance with the plant and animal world of the Karakum Desert from the central part of its Eastern zone. It was here, at a distance of 70 kilometers to the south of the city of Chardzhou, in 1928 a unique Repetek reserve was organized. Its main task is to protect and study the natural complex, which is rich in the Karakum Desert.

The Repetek Reserve covers an area of about thirty-five thousand hectares, on which the main plant communities of the sandy sea of Turkmenistan and its diverse fauna are gathered.

It is interesting

The Desert of Karakum has a namesake. This relatively small sand formation - Karakum - is located in Kazakhstan. It is located between two lakes - Sassikol and Balkhash.

Many tourists in the Karakum desert are attracted by a burning well. It is located near the village of Darvaz. This is a former prospecting well, which collapsed because of the nearby underground void.

There are a lot of groundwater in the Karakum. Especially their large reserves are located not far from the Amudarya river bed.

In the Karakum Desert, twenty thousand wells have been excavated. And the water from them, as a rule, is extracted in an ancient way, for which camels walking around in a circle are used.