Chaqmaqtin Lake | |
---|---|
Location | Wakhan National Park |
Coordinates | 37°14′N 74°11′E / 37.233°N 74.183°E |
Primary outflows | Murghab River |
Basin countries | Afghanistan |
Max. length | 17 km (11 mi) |
Max. width | 3 km (1.9 mi) |
Surface elevation | 4,024 m (13,202 ft) |
Chaqmaqtin Lake (Persian: كول چقمقتين, romanized: Kōl-e Chaqmaqtīn) is a lake in the Wakhan District of Badakhshan Province in northeastern Afghanistan. It lies at an elevation of about 4,024 m in the Little Pamir.[1] It extends for about 17 km and is about 3 km wide.
Chaqmaqtin Lake lies towards the western end of the Little Pamir valley. The Aksu or Murghab River flows east from the lake through the Little Pamir and enters into Tajikistan at the eastern end of the valley. The Bozai River (also known as the Little Pamir River) rises a short distance west of the lake and flows 15km west to join the Wakhjir River and form the Wakhan River near the settlement of Bozai Gumbaz. Some accounts state that the Bozai River also rises from Chaqmaqtin Lake.[2] Another source calls the lake "a deeper and possibly marshy section within the Aq Su-Little Pamir River drainage divide".[3]
Chaqmaqtin is a glacier basin lake formed when the ice was once very thick here before it melted away a few thousand years ago.[4]
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: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) by the US Bureau of Intelligence and Research, p.10.