The Valley of the Lakes ( mn, Нууруудын хөндий) is an intermontane depression located in southwestern Mongolia, separating the Khangai and Govi-Altai mountains. The valley stretches 500 km long, has a width of approximately 100 km, and is located at altitudes ranging between 1000 and 1400 meters above sea level. The topography is dominated by sandy and rocky plains, with

solonchak Solonchak ( Russian and Ukrainian: Солончак) is a Reference Soil Group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). It is a pale or grey soil type found in arid to subhumid, poorly drained conditions. The word is Russian for "sa ...

and

takir Takir (takyr) (russian: такыр, originally from Kazakh or another Turkic language) meaning "smooth, even, or bare", is a type of relief occurring in the deserts of Central Asia, similar to a salt flat in the southwestern United States. A ta ...

soils present. Along the valley floor lies a chain of large and small saline lakes, which are generally shallow, with a saucer-shaped depth profile. The largest of these lakes are Böön Tsagaan Lake and Orog Lake. Water levels vary considerably in size both seasonally and from year to year, and some lakes may dry out completely in certain years. They all receive their inflow from rivers which rise in the Khangai Mountains, and no permanent inflow comes from the Gobi-Altai. Barchan sand dunes are located on the valley's margins. The region near the Govi-Altai is a seismically active zone and is where the 1957 Mongolia earthquake occurred. Lakes of Gobi Valley are known to be an important staging for migratory waterfowl, particularly

Anatidae The Anatidae are the biological family of water birds that includes ducks, geese, and swans. The family has a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on all the world's continents except Antarctica. These birds are adapted for swimming, floating ...

and shorebirds, but few details are available. As the lakes shrinks in summer, it leaves areas of

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

, especially to the east of the lake. The fish fauna includes species of

Oreoleuciscus ''Oreoleuciscus'' is a genus of medium to large cyprinid freshwater fish which is only found in Mongolia and adjacent parts of Russia. Species There are currently four recognized species in this genus: * ''Oreoleuciscus angusticephalus'' Boguts ...

and Thymallus brevirostris endemic to the western Mongolia. The valley was first explored scientifically by the geographer Nikolay Przhevalsky. In 1998, the whole valley region (including Böön Tsagaan Lake, Taatsiin Tsagaan Lake, , and Orog Lake) was designated a

Ramsar Ramsar may refer to: * Places so named: ** Ramsar, Mazandaran, city in Iran ** Ramsar, Rajasthan, village in India * Eponyms of the Iranian city: ** Ramsar Convention concerning wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran ** Ramsar site, wetland listed in ...

site of international importance.

References

{{Reflist Depressions of Mongolia Ramsar sites in Mongolia

See also

References