Garabogazkol Aylagy Lagoon
One of the most forlorn places on Earth. Even by Turkmenistan’s standards it’s way off the beaten track – in the empty north-western-most corner of the country, east of the coastline of the Caspian Sea, just south of the border with Kazakhstan.
Garabogazköl is a salt lagoon, at ca. 7000 square miles or 11,265 km2 it’s in fact the world’s largest such lagoon. It is also one of the saltiest bodies of water on Earth, even beating the much smaller but more famously super-briny Dead Sea. And it’s at least as deadly an environment. Corpses of dead animals that dared to get too close to Garabogazköl are allegedly a common sight along the lagoon’s shores.
Epic Turkmenistan Culture & Adventure Route © Monika Newbound
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