NAVOY INSTITUTE OF INNOVATIONS
FACULTY OF "INNOVATIONS"
“English language”
from science
INDEPENDENT
WORK
THEME: "Nature of Uzbekistan "
Prepared by: Ulugova Surayyo
Group: 1.7 philology of the Russian language
Checked: Davlatova Aziza
Navoi-2023
THEME: "Nature of Uzbekistan "
Nature
in
Uzbekistan is
unique
and
incredibly
diverse. Uzbekistan occupies a vast area in the very heart of Central Asia,
with the largest part of the country lying between the rivers Amudarya
and Syrdarya. The territory of Uzbekistan spreads from Ustyurt
Plateau in the west to as far as Ferghana Valley in the east, and is 447,4
thousand square kilometers in area. Uzbekistan borders Kyrgyzstan,
Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
The country is mostly flat with Turan plain being one of the major
lowlands. The largest part of this plain is the Kyzylkum Desert, for 700
kilometers spreading between the two rivers from the Aral Sea to the
foothills of the Western Tien-Shan and Gissar-Alay. An unforgettable
impression is created by harmonious arrangement of numerous sand-dunes
lying longitudinally and reminding of parallel wave crests. This ‘sand sea’
looks motionless, but it is not recommended to walk deep into it without
urgent need. Over centuries only camel-driven caravans dared to travel
here following the Great Silk Road routes.
Sand, clay and stony deserts cover about 40% of the country’s area.
Despite rigorous conditions these deserts are full of life. In spring their vast
expanses are covered with multicolour carpets of bloom – red poppies and
tulips, violet malcolmias, blue and yellow irises. Their life span is short: in
May they wither away, the green grass turns yellow. All the local plants
have adapted in various ways to their desert lot. Predominating in the
deserts and plains, there grow wormwoods, saltwort, sand acacias,
haloxylons, tamarisks, camel’s thorns, and other herbs and bushes. Their
roots reach as deep as the water-bearing layers of soil. People say about
such plants: “their heads are in the sun while their feet are in water”.
The animals inhabiting
deserts are modest in their
need for food and water.
Tortoises, snakes, small and
1.5-long giant lizards have
almost the same color as that
of the surface they crawl on.
In the steppes there caper
saiga antelopes. With the
approach of scorching heat,
Menzbir marmots and yellow gophers hide in their burrows and go into
hibernation till the next spring.
In the mid-20th century the southern part of the Kyzylkum
Desert became in a way the scene of a ‘geographical miracle’: in waterless
desolate wilderness there appeared a lake whose water surface exceeded
2300 square kilometers in area! The lake resulted from overflow of
the Syrdarya river, when the surplus drain water in Jizak Steppe had to
be sent to the Aydar inland basin. The drain water from the neighboring
Golodnaya Steppe was also sent there. Thus came into being the blue
Aydarkul Lake, with its waters full of fish and its beaches attractive to
holiday-makers.
The south-east Kyzylkums
are plains whose landscape is
transformed
by
irrigation.
Formerly it was a desert area
traditionally called ‘steppes’ –
Golodnaya Steppe and Jizak
Steppe. Karshi Steppe to the south
of the Gissar-Alay looks the same.
These steppes are not arid deserts anymore. Today these are carefully
cultivated plains with boundless cotton and wheat fields, orchards and
gardens, mechanized farms and industrial towns.
One of the distinct features of Uzbekistan is its location in the very
heart of the Asian continent, thousands kilometers away from the nearest
seas; Uzbekistan has no coastlines except for the 420-kilometer-long Aral
Sea shore line.
A dramatic fate was meant for the Aral Sea. For the past decades the
sea has shrunk fivefold; in some places its waters have gone 80 kilometers
away from the shoreline. In cooperation with the neighboring countries,
supported by the international community, the government of Uzbekistan
is now taking emergency measures to save the Aral Sea.
It is not without reasons that the climate of Uzbekistan is called
‘extreme’: day as well as year temperatures are characterised by sharp
drops. One can experience these ‘temperature extremes’ particularly in the
mountainous areas where during the day the heat is really scorching but
after sunset the puddles get covered with ice crusts. In summer it is hot and
dry here. Winters are short, relatively mild, yet with occasional frosts that
are too hard for the latitude. Springs, on the contrary, slip by, with constant
showers and thunderstorms – as if nature tries to hasten the blossoming
time. And finally, there comes the autumn – the pleasant season in the
country: the heat gradually goes away, decreasing by 1°C a day; the sun in
the cloudless sky is shining gently; the stalls in the bazaars are crammed
with fruits and vegetables.
In the tugai woods along the banks of the Syrdarya river herons can
be met. One may be lucky to see beautiful pheasants through the willow
and oleaster branches.
In the valleys and oases there
grow poplars, willows, oleasters,
mulberry-trees. On the foothills
rather common are groves of
walnut-trees, shrubs of dog-roses,
hawthorns,
almond-trees,
pistachio-trees, wild apple-trees. In
the high grass and in the shrubs live
wild boars, wolves, hares, foxes,
porcupines and badgers. Among the thick-growing branches there are nests
of many kinds of song-birds. On the rocky mountain slopes pheasants,
stone partridges, larks, owls, some birds of prey can be seen. In the TienShan and Gissar-Alay mountains one can meet groves of Central Asian
junipers. In the rapid mountain rivers, originating high in the glaciers, there
live the local species of trout and cat-fish. In the sky there hover eagles and
white-head vultures.
Among nature’s treasures of Uzbekistan of a special significance are
nature reserves, the places unaffected by man’s activity. Today there are 9
nature reserves in the country. They embrace unique diverse landscapes
from sand-dunes of the deserts to blossoming oases, from riverside tugai
woods to alpine meadows.
One of the oldest and biggest nature reserves is Ugam-Chatkal
National Park. It is located in the spurs of the Western Tien Shan, one of
the most ecologically clean parts of the world. The place is incredibly rich
in fauna. In the valley of the river Pskem there lives the white-claw bear.
In the area surrounding the tributaries of the Maidantal and the Oyigang
one can meet stone martens, Turkestan lynxes and snow leopards. The
reserve is also home to Siberian roes, mountain goats and Tien Shan wild
rams. According to scientists there are 44 species of mammals in the
reserve. Each reserve is remarkable in its own way. At a distance of 40
kilometers off Bukhara there was established the reserve ‘Jeiran’, the only
one of such kind in Central Asia. Twenty five years ago there were brought
here 42 jeirans. Now there are 700 of them. Besides jeirans, wild
Prezhevalskiy horses and koulans (dziggetai) are bred in the reserve.
Located at the spurs of the Zerafshan range, Kitab State
Geological Reserve is one of very few places in the world where evidence
of the formation of the earth’s crust remains on the surface. Here numerous
picturesque rivers cut deep through the mountains ridges, thus enabling the
scientists to conduct researches on the bedding of earth’s strata in their
historical
consecution. Zaamin
Reserve in
Jizak
Province
mountainous woodland, with deep
canyons and rapid rivers – is
famous for its relict Central Asian
juniper woods. The flora of
Uzbekistan numbers over 1700
species. About 800 of them can be
found nowhere but here.
In the streets and parks of
towns and cities there grow very old trees – real monuments of nature. In
Uzbekistan there are very many oaks, platans and chestnut whose age
exceeds 100 years. The life span of elm, so common in Uzbekistan, is
known to come up to 2000 years. In Ferghana Valley there still grow trees
that are over 500 years old. The exotic nature of Uzbekistan with its desert
and mountain landscapes offers a unique opportunity for a traveller to
experience an exciting horseback riding in the foothills or to make a breathtaking rafting down a mountain river, to encounter exotic animals and
watch rare species of plants.
Rivers & lakes in Uzbekistan
For republic level of presence of water resources is vital. They occupy
on extensive flat areas, approximately two thirds of territory of Republic
Uzbekistan. At the same time the mountain areas located in the east of
Uzbekistan, are cut strongly up by a wide network of the rivers. Such nonuniform distribution of superficial waters on republic areas is characterized
by climatic and geographical features of Uzbekistan. Travel to Uzbekistan
with our company because it is too easy to book tour into such beautiful
places.
The basic area of formation of a drain within republic is its mountain part
where the greatest quantity of dropping out deposits is necessary,
evaporations in these areas are insignificant. The power supply of all
existing rivers of Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, is mainly waters of a
snow and glacial origin.
The largest rivers of Central Asia make two river pools: SirDarya and
AmuDarya. The river basin of SirDarya includes the rivers Narga,
Kashkadarya, Chirchik, Ahangaran, Soh, Isfara, Akbura, Isfayramsay,
Shahimardan, Gavasay and Kasansay; in a river basin of AmuDarya Zaravshan, Kashkadarya, Surhandarya, Tupolangdarya, Sherabad. Inflows
of the rivers as AmuDarya, and SirDarya basically proceed on republic
territory only within
the average and
bottom current. In
the conditions of a
hot droughty climate
many rivers dry up,
partly in the summer
because the water
most part is used for
an irrigation of
farmlands, mainly
the Khorezm oasis and Karakalpakstan.
On the average a current of this river the certain weight of water gets
into the Amudarinsky channel, and then it irrigates the earth of Bukhara
and Kashkadarinskii oases.
Unique large lake in Uzbekistan - salty Aral Sea located in the
northwest of the country on border with Kazakhstan. The area of Aral Sea
in 1980-1990th years was strongly reduced, as the most part of water of the
rivers running into it is used for an irrigation of the earth. To 1998 coastal
line of Aral Sea has receded places on 80 km, and the sea has broken up to
three
separate
reservoirs.
The rivers of Uzbekistan form the drain basically at the expense of
thawing of seasonal snow. A glacial and rain food of the mountain rivers
slightly. In winter the basic power supply are underground waters. The
largest rivers crossing territory of Uzbekistan, it is AmuDarya and
SirDarya. They originate out of republic limits. Amu Darya within
Uzbekistan appears an average and bottom part of the current (1415 km).
From its inflows on republic territory proceed Surhandarya (175 km),
Sherabad (177 km), Kashkadarya (378 km) and Zaravshan (877 km).
The river Amu Darya
The main river of
Uzbekistan and the
Central Asia. Oks and
Yaksart - ancient
names of AmuDarya
and SirDarya.
The river AmuDarya in
the extent of 2580 km,
was formed as a result of merge of Vakhsh and Pjandj which originate on
Pamir. It flows on the northwest, on northern border of Afghanistan with
Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenia.
The river SirDarya
One of the basic rivers of Uzbekistan and the Central Asia. Oks and
Yaksart - ancient names of Amu Darya and SirDarya.
The river SirDarya, ancient Yaksart, has extent of 2220 km, proceeds
through Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. One of the main rivers of
the Central Asia, SirDarya originates in Fergana valley, in a place of
merge of the rivers Naryn and Karadarya which source in mountains
Tjan-Shan.
Lake Ajdarkul
Lake Ajdarkul name turquoise "the sea in sand". It is capable to admire
and fascinate the most skilled many seeing on the earth of different
beauty and rarities of the nature. The lake Ajdarkul is some kind of an
ecological antipode of Aral Sea, huge drainless reservoir. Attracting to
itself of the travelers who have got tired of desert and steppes.
Nuratin Mountains
Nuratin Mountains low, but rocky, consist of several chains. It
Aktay (from a powerful ridge of marble), Karatau and actually Nuratau.
Ridge Nuratau will extend from the east on the West on 200 km, very
much rocks, it is strongly crossed and a little accessible to free
movement. The top point of ridge Nuratau reaches 2169 m is a mountain
Hajatbashi.
Chimgan mountains
The mountains Chimgan, located all in 80 km north east Tashkent,
are one of the most popular vacation spots as local residents, and visitors
from other countries. Low (average height nearby 1500) the mountain
ridge in western part Tjan-Shan, is famous as one the best winter resorts
of Asia. In mountains there is a set of resort settlements and hotels, the
large quantity of the pedestrian and ski trails, and also popular slopes for
mountaineering is laid.
Beldersay
Beldersay is a popular ski resort. It is situated in Gazalkent district of
Tashkent region, in 80 km. from Tashkent and 5 km. from the ski resort
“Chimgan”. Beldersay is a unique place, not many resorts can boast such
a potential. Thanks to its unique climate the resort is actual during all
seasons. One can see the gallery – rock paintings of ancient hunters
(petroglyths) in the picturesque gorge of Beldersay.