Sarygamysh Lake and Syr Darya River, Turkmenistan
41.7N 57.4E
Turkmenistan - December 31st, 2011
The Sarygamysh Lake , Turkmen for ‘Yellow Depression,” is situated in north central Turkmenistan and visible in the lower left quadrant of this image. It is geographically located approximately midway between the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. Approximately the northwest quarter of the lake belongs to the country of Uzbekistan, while the rest belongs to Turkmenistan. Here, sediments line the northwestern shores.
To the east and northeast of the lake is the Syr Darya River, which rises in two headstreams in the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan—the Naryn River and the Kara Darya—and flows for some 2,212 kilometres (1,374 mi) west and north-west Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to the remains of the Aral Sea. The Syr Darya drains an area of over 800,000 square kilometres (310,000 sq mi). Along its course, the Syr Darya irrigates the most fertile cotton-growing region in the whole of Central Asia.
