Misplaced Pages

Uvs Lake: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from[REDACTED] with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 10:09, 6 January 2008 editA4bot (talk | contribs)25,852 editsm robot Adding: pl:Uws-nuur, uk:Убсу-Нур← Previous edit Revision as of 13:58, 22 January 2008 edit undoDanu Widjajanto (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users12,613 editsNo edit summaryNext edit →
Line 90: Line 90:
] ]


]
] ]
] ]

Revision as of 13:58, 22 January 2008

UNESCO World Heritage Site
Uvs Nuur Basin
UNESCO World Heritage Site
CriteriaNatural: ix, x
Reference769
Inscription2003 (27th Session)

Uvs Nuur (Template:Lang-mn; Template:Lang-tyv, Ubsu-Nur, English Lake Uvs) is the largest lake in Mongolia, which, at 753 m above sea level, covers an area of 3,350 km². Its northeastern part is situated in the Tuva Republic of the Russian Federation. The largest settlement on the shore is Ulaangom. This shallow and very saline body of water is the only remainder of a huge saline sea which covered a much larger area several thousand years ago.

A satellite image of the Uvs-Nuur lake basin

The Uvs Nuur Lake is the centre of the Uvs Nuur Basin, which covers an area of 700,000 km² and represents one of the best-preserved natural steppe landscapes of Eurasia. Here the world's most northern desert meets the world's most southern tundra zone. Apart from the Uvs Nuur, the basin comprises several smaller lakes, notably the Üüreg Nuur Lake, which lies at 1,450 m above sea level. As these lakes lie to the north of other inland seas of Central Asia, they are of key importance for waterfowl migration.

Since the basin spans the geoclimatic boundary between Siberia and Central Asia, temperatures may vary from −58°C in winter to 47°C in summer. Despite its harsh climate, the depression is home to 173 bird species and 41 mammal species, including the globally endangered snow leopard, argali, and Asiatic ibex. The population density is low here. The lack of industry and the reliance of the inhabitants on traditional ways such as nomadic pasturing have little impact on the landscape and allow the ecosystem to remain relatively pristine.

In 2003, the UNESCO listed the Uvs Nuur Basin as a natural World Heritage Site. It was nominated as "one of the largest intact watersheds in Central Asia where 40,000 archeological sites can be found from historically famous nomadic tribes such as the Scythians, the Turks and the Huns." This transboundary patrimony is one of the largest sites inscribed in the World Heritage List to date.

Footnotes

  1. "Ubsu-Nur Accepted into World Network of Biosphere Reserves". ISAR. Retrieved 2006-12-31.
  2. "The Ubsunur Hollow". Greenpeace. Retrieved 2006-12-31.
  3. "Uvs Nuur Basin". whc.unesco.org. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  4. "Russia's First World Heritage Site". Retrieved 2006-12-31.

References

Uvs Lake
Coordinates50°18′N 92°42′E / 50.300°N 92.700°E / 50.300; 92.700
Typesaline
Basin countriesMongolia, Russia
Surface area3,350 km²
Surface elevation753 m
SettlementsUlaangom

External links

World Heritage Sites in Mongolia
Flag of Mongolia
Flag of Mongolia
World Heritage Sites in Russia by federal district
Central
Far Eastern
North Caucasian
Northwestern
Siberian
Southern
Volga
Categories:
Uvs Lake: Difference between revisions Add topic