The Ailik or Aylik Lake (; also transcribed as the

arge In Greek mythology, the name Arge (Ancient Greek: Ἄργη) may refer to: *Arge, a nymph daughter of Zeus and Hera. *Arge, a huntress. When she was pursuing a stag, she boasted that she would catch up with the animal even if it ran as fast as ...

Alike Lake) is a lake in

Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region Xinjiang, SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autono ...

, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the

Dzungarian Basin The Junggar Basin () is one of the largest sedimentary basins in Northwest China. It is located in Xinjiang, and enclosed by the Tarbagatai Mountains of Kazakhstan in the northwest, the Altai Mountains of Mongolia in the northeast, and the Tian Sh ...

, on the edge of the

Gurbantünggüt Desert The Gurbantünggüt Desert ( kk, Құрбантұңғыт шөлі; ug, قۇربانتۈڭغۈت قۇملۇقى, Qurbantüngghüt Qumluqi; zh, s=古尔班通古特沙漠 , t=古爾班通古特沙漠, p=Gǔ'ěrbāntōnggǔtè Shāmò) occupies a l ...

. Administratively, the lake is situated within the

Urho District Orku District ( zh, s=乌尔禾区, t=烏爾禾區, p=Wū'ěrhé Qū; ug, ئورقۇ رايونى, translit=Orqu Rayoni, Ork̡u Rayoni, ) is a district within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and is under the administrative jurisdiction of t ...

Karamay City Karamay is a prefecture-level city in the north of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China. The name of the city comes from the Uyghur language and means "black oil", referring to the oil fields near the city. Karamay w ...

, some 20 km south-east of the district's main urban area. The Ailik Lake is fed by the

Baiyang River The Baiyang River (), also known under a Mongolian name transcribed in Chinese as Namuguolei (), is a river in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China. It flows through the region's Tacheng Prefecture and the Urho District of Karamay City. The ri ...

, flowing from the

Saur Mountains The Saur Mountains (; kk, Сауыр жоталары, ''Sauyr jotalary''; russian: Саур) is one of the mountain ranges in the Tian Shan system. An eastern extension of the Tarbagatai Mountains, it starts on the China-Kazakhstan border and con ...

on the Dzungarian Basin's northern rim; the river forms a small

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

as it enters the lake (). As of 1999, the lake's water surface elevation was to above the

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. Due to the construction of the Baiyang River Reservoir and the Huangyangquan Reservoir, and the concomitant diversion of the Baiyang River waters for irrigation, aquaculture, and other economic needs, the Ailik Lake started shrinking in the 1980s; by the mid 1980s, it was just 15 km² in size and hardly 1 meter deep; by the 1990s, it had virtually dried up. The lake was brought back to life by the Irtysh–Karamay Canal. As the canal crosses the Baiyang River at , a provision has been made for letting about 1/3 of the water flow from the canal into the Baiyang River, (); this improves the water supply situation in Urho District, and allows the river to reach the Ailik Lake again. According to a report published in 2003, since the opening of the canal on August 1, 2000, the Ailik lake, which had been almost dry, has been able to recover as a deep lake with plenty of fish; now it occupies 50 km² and is up to 7 m deep. An important geological feature is the Ailik Lake area is the Kewu Fault, which runs in the northeast to southwest direction, from the Ailik Lake to the Lesser Ailik Lake (小艾里克湖, a.k.a. the Small Alike Lake, ) and the dry Alan Nur lake (, or ; (English abstract on p. 160) ), which until 1915 was the end point of the Manas River. Although there is no surface water flow out of the Ailik Lake, some water from this lake is believed to seasonally seep through ground fractures of the Kewu Fault into the Lesser Ailik Lake. Potentially, water can seep through the same fault even farther to the southwest, to the dry Alan Nur lake.

Notes

Lakes of Xinjiang {{xinjiang-geo-stub