The Secret of the Drainless Ayghr Lake

The formation of the modern landscape of the Armenian Highlands began about 25 million years ago. Due to intense changes in the terrain during the Alpine orogeny, mountain masses began to ascend out the from water.

The first new mountain ranges would form in the following 15 million years. The whole territory of the Highlands turned into dry land. The new stage of the geological evolution of the plateau caused large-scale volcanic eruptions. Multiple layers of lava covered the ancient terrain of the Armenian Highlands, burying under them the features of the former landscape like river valleys, ravines, and water reservoirs…

The drainless Ayghr Lake has been in the center of scientists’ attention for quite some time. The mystery of the inflow of this lake has long remained unsolved. Located in the Ararat Valley at an altitude of 860 meters, this small lake only has a surface area of 5 square kilometers and a maximum depth of 8 meters.

The fact that this lake is located in a semidesert area causing high evaporation of the lake’s waters has been further increasing the interest of scholars. The thing is that in summer, Ayghr Lake loses so much water that its surface area shrinks down to mere 0.07 square kilometers.

Scientists relatively recently discovered that the inflow of Ayghr Lake is one ancient river that had seemingly survived the lava eruptions tens of thousands years ago.

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