Ivano-Arakhlei Lakes

Of the six large and twenty small lakes of the Ivano-Arakhlei reserve, the largest are Arahlei and Shakshinskoye. Arahlei covers an area of 59 square kilometers, the maximum depth is 17 meters, and the length of the coastline is 29 km. The area of the water surface of Lake Shakshinskoye is 51.8 square kilometers, the deepest point is 6.9 meters, to bypass the lake along the coastline, a tourist will need to overcome 28.2 kilometers. In addition to the mentioned Arakhlei and Shakshinsky, belonging to the Yenisei basin, the composition of the Ivano-Arakhlei lakes included Tasei and Ivan (the basin of the Lena River), Bolshaya Undugun and Irgen (the Yenisei basin). The northernmost lake of the system is Tasei. The lake is located in a lowland – easily flooded valley. The depth of the lake does not exceed three meters.

The reserve created around the Trans-Baikal lakes, concentrated in the Beklemishevskaya basin (tectonic depression), was founded in 1995. Ivano-Arkhalei landscape reserve occupies 210 thousand hectares and is a natural area subject to special protection. Currently, work is underway to change the status to a “natural park”.