Badkhyz State Nature Reserve

Badkhyz Reserve is located in Mary velayat in the south of Turkmenistan.

The area of the reserve is 877 square km. It was created in 1941 to protect the ecosystems of the Badkhyz plateau between the Kushka and Tejen rivers. Average annual rainfall is about 280 mm, with a maximum of 420 mm and a minimum of 130 mm. Short spring gives way to long hot summer.

The Badkhyz Reserve is rich in a unique natural complex that has no equal on the territory of Central Asia. Badkhyz Reserve has attracted the attention of scientists since early times, because of which it was explored by geographers, soil scientists, botanists and zoologists.

Some consider Badkhyz a desert, which is not true, and at the same time, it cannot be called a steppe. Badkhyz Nature Reserve is a semi-desert with hills. The Karakum Desert adjoins the Badkhyz Reserve from the north. Moreover, the hills are located in the eastern part of the reserve, located singly and in groups. The height of the hills ranges from 20 to 200 meters. In the north, the hills turn into the Duzenkyr and Ellibir uplands, in the south-west it reaches up to 800 m above sea level, and becomes mountainous.

The huge drainless depression Yeroylanduz is an interesting part of the reserve. The depression is 20 km long from east to west and approximately 10 km wide. The depth of this basin with a salt lake reaches 500 m. Also in the south of the Badkhyz reserve, in addition to the Yeroylanduz depression, there are other, small-sized depressions - Kagazly, Tekeduz, Nemeksar.

The Gyzyljar tract is located at the eastern borders of the reserve; it is a very deep and wide ravine, the length of which reaches 18 km. The edges of the ravine have steep and sheer slopes with ledges, as well as large rubble-sand dumps. The height of these steep walls reaches several tens of meters.