Lake Ubsu-Nur
In the basin of Large Lakes in the western part of Mongolia and in the south of Tuva, at an altitude of 753 meters, there is Lake Ubsu-Nur. Russia owns only a modest fragment of this largest Mongolian lake.
The length is about 85 km.
The maximum width is 80 km.
The area is about 3,350 km2. This value may also vary depending on the water level.
The maximum depth is 20 m.
The average depth is 10.1 m.
The volume of water is 35.7 km3.
Less than 1% of the reservoir belongs to Russia (the Republic of Tuva): only 12 km2 of mirrors and 10 km of coastline.
"Ubsu-Nur" means lake (nur) in the valley of Ubsu (or Uvs). That's why on our maps it is also designated either Ubsa or Uvs-Nuur.
Drying up, an ancient reservoir left behind a closed, drainless lake Ubsu-Nur with bitter-salty water. Moreover, nowadays the lake continues to shrink in size: according to scientists, several millennia ago Ubsu-Nur was 5 times larger!
The geoclimatic border between Siberia and Central Asia runs along the Uvs Valley. In winter months, the air temperature in these places can drop to -58 °C, and in summer it can reach +47 °C! That is why the lake has been under ice for more than six months, but with the onset of a short summer, the water in it manages to warm up to 25 ° C on the surface and up to 19 ° C at depth. In addition, the climate here is characterized by high fluctuations in air temperature during the day – the closer to the center of the lake basin, the higher the fluctuations.
Due to these amazing features of the climate, completely different natural zones successfully coexist in the same area near Ubsu-Nur: very branched and extremely swampy rivers descend to the shores of the reservoir from the surrounding mountains, while ridges originate from its waters and huge massifs of sand lie. Due to such a variety of landscapes and temperatures, the vicinity of Ubsu-Nur is inhabited by more than 200 species of birds and animals, including even very rare species. In addition, there are almost thirty species of fish in the lake (although only the Altai osman is of interest to humans). The area around Lake Ubsu-Nur has been inhabited for many millennia. Ancient nomadic peoples (Xiongnu, Mongols, Yenisei Kyrgyz) left numerous mounds (earth mounds over the burial site) and deer stones (massive slabs of stone with images of deer and other animals) here. But at the same time, neither at any time in the past nor now has man particularly encroached on the lake's resources, and therefore the ecosystem of the reservoir has hardly changed for many millennia. Today, people practically do not live in the immediate vicinity of the lake. The nearest large settlement to Ubsu-Nur is Ulaangom. This Mongolian city was founded presumably in 1686 and is located 30 km from the lake and about 120 km from the border with Russia.
In 2003, the Ubsu-Nur basin was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List. 900 thousand hectares of the facility are divided into 12 sites, seven of which belong to the State Natural Biosphere Reserve of the Republic of Tuva of the Russian Federation "Ubsunur basin", established back in 1993, and four belong to the Mongolian nature Reserve "Ubsu–Nur" and the nature reserve "Tes-Khem".
An independent trip to the Russian coast of Ubsu-Nur will most likely not justify itself: the shores of the lake are so overgrown with reeds in places that, without knowing the way, it is almost impossible to get to the water even in an SUV. Therefore, it is better to visit the reserve as part of a specially organized excursion. As a rule, they start from the capital of Tuva, Kyzyl, where you can arrive in any convenient way.