Shoshkaly (Akmola Region)

Shoshkaly (Шошқалы; Шошкалы) is a salt lake in Akkol and Birzhan sal districts, Akmola Region, Kazakhstan.

The lake is located about 6 km southeast of Baimyrza village. The water of the lake is used for local agricultural purposes.

Geography
Shoshkaly is an endorheic lake of the Ishim river basin. It lies at the northern end of the Kazakh Uplands in a tectonic basin at an elevation of 311 m. The bottom of the lake is flat and muddy. The mud layer is between 0.6 m and 0.8 m thick. The lakeshore is flat in the north and the northwest, the other sections are steep, lined with 4.5 m to 8 m high cliffs. Among the lakes in its vicinity, Itemgen lies 12 km to the east and Mamay 26 km to the northeast.

Shoshkaly has an oval shape oriented in a roughly southeast–northwest direction. The lake reaches its highest level in the spring and its lowest in the summer. It usually freezes to the bottom in the middle of the winter. The mineralization of its waters varies between 800 mg/l and 1000 mg/l in the spring, to between 1500 mg/l and 2000 mg/l in the summer, and between 3500 mg/l and 5000 mg/l in the winter when it does not freeze.

Flora and fauna
Lake Shoshkaly is surrounded by steppe vegetation. The basin is flat, with a few low hills rising in the west and southwest. The lakeshore is covered with a 200 m to 500 m wide belt of reeds. The center of the lake is clear of aquatic plants.