Walks on islands on lake Aakol.

“Familiarity with almost all the geographical and geological literature on Central Asia allows me to assert that the contribution of Russian scientists to the study of this vast area exceeds the contribution of all other researchers in the aggregate.”

Academician V. A. Obruchev.

Nomad Routes from Caspian to Altai.

Piski Island is located in the northern part of Lake Alakol and is located in the Urdzhar district of the East Kazakhstan region. There are 3 islands in the central part of the lake: Ulken Araltobe with an area of 25.25 square kilometers, Sredny with an area of 170852.14 square meters, the perimeter of the island reaches 1614.58 meters and the island of Kishkene Araltobe with an area of 1.7 square kilometers, the perimeter of the island is 6221.53 meters.
In the northern part there is a significant island of Pisky, the length of which from west to east reaches 4.4 kilometers, the maximum width in the eastern part is 600 meters (01/18/2023). The area of the island is 1.26 square kilometers, the perimeter of the island reaches 8206.73 meters.
The length of this island in 1962 was 10.5 kilometers and a width of 2.5 kilometers. It is 11.4 kilometers southeast from the village of Kamyskala (formerly the village of Rybachye) and is located 24 kilometers southeast of the island of Ulken-Araltobe.
The island has steep coasts, bays with a border of reeds, and its surface is covered with sedge-grass vegetation. Many waders, gulls and terns nest on it. The local population is used for grazing horses. Between the island of Piski and the mouth of the Katynsu River, for 10 kilometers, there are many sandy islands densely overgrown with reeds, as well as vast reed massifs flooded with water and forming a kind of delta.
In these places, many river and diving ducks nest and molt, there are mute swans, gray and great egrets, gulls and river terns. In the interfluve of the Urdzhar and Katynsu, 15-17 kilometers from the lake, behind a strip of clay plain, there is a sandy massif of Biikum 19 kilometers wide.
Between the rivers Katynsu and Emel stretch the sands of Bairkum, which reach the northeastern coast of Alakol and form sand islands among the water.
Geographical coordinates of Piski Island: N46°22'26.98" E81°35'08.63"

Authoriyu:
Berezovikov Nikolay Nikolaevich, Cand.Biol.Sci.

Photos by
Alexander Petrov