Lake Sevan

A view of the Lake Sevan from the Sevanavank monastery

Lake Sevan (Armenian: Սևանա լիճ, named Gegham Sea (Գեղամա ծով) in ancient times; Turkish: Gökçe Gölü; Azeri: Göyçə gölü) is the largest lake in Armenia and one of the largest high altitude lakes in the world. The entire lake is situated inside the eastern Armenian province of Geghark'unik'. It is fed by 28 rivers and drained by the Hrazdan (Razdan) river. Only 10% of the outgoing water is drained by the Hrazdan, while the remaining 90% evaporates. Along with lake Van and lake Urmia it was one of the three great lakes of the Armenian Kingdom, referred to as the seas of Armenia, and it is the only one within today's Republic of Armenia. Sevanavank is the historic area near the lake.

Before human intervention the lake was 95 metres deep, covered an area of 1,360 km² (5% of Armenia's entire area), had a volume of 58 km³ and a perimeter of 260 km. The lake was located at an altitude of 1,950 m.

Intervention

View of the lake from space

In 1910 Soukias Manasserian (one of the civil engineers behind the interventions that caused the Aral Sea disaster) published a study Evaporating billions and stagnation of the Russian Capital, suggesting to lower the lake to 45 metres and use the water for irrigation and hydroelectricity.

In the Stalin era the plan was slightly modified: the water level would be reduced by 55 metres (5 metres more than suggested by Manasserian), the perimeter would shrink to 80 km and the volume to only 5 km³. Nut and oak trees would be planted on newly acquired land, and introducing some trout species into the remainder of the lake would increase fishery production by ten times.

The Armenian Supreme Soviet approved the plan without consulting the local people and the major works started in 1933. The river bed of the Hrazdan was deepened and construction of a tunnel 40 metres below the original water level started. The work was delayed due to World War 2 and was only finished in 1949 when the water level began to fall by more than one metre per year.

An ecological disaster like that in Aral Sea was avoided when the Stalinist era ended in 1956 and the project and its consequences were reviewed thoroughly. As there were troubles with planting oaks and nuts and with fishery, the Sevan committee was established with the mission "to raise the level as much as possible". Hydro-electric power stations on the Hrazdan would be replaced with thermal power stations. In 1962 the level stabilised at 18 metres below the original level, but two years later the lake started to "bloom" due to eutrophic algae.

In 1981, a 49 km tunnel was constructed, diverting water from the Arpa river (from a reservoir near Kechut) to the lake near Artsvanist. The level rose only 1.5 metres, so another 22 km tunnel was begun from Vorotan (further south from Kechut). Only 18 km were constructed because in 1988 Azerbaijan imposed an economic blockade on Armenia due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the work had to be stopped.

The Armenian government completed the Vorotan tunnel in 2003, but water has not yet begun to flow into the lake. The level stabilised at 20 metres below the original, and the lake's area is now 940 km².

Due to recent rain and other changes, the water level is again slowly rising (as of 2005).

Fauna

Sevan trout (Salmo ischchan) was an endemic species of the lake, but it is endangered as some competitors were introduced into the lake, including common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus) from Lake Ladoga, goldfish (Carrasius auratus), and crayfish (Astacus leptodactylus). If the Sevan trout is likely to become extinct in its "home" lake, it seems that it will survive in Issyk-Kul lake (Kyrgyzstan) where it was introduced.

The lake is an important breeding ground for the Armenian Gull (Larus armenicus) with about 4000-5000 pairs. Other birds which visit the lake include Bewick's swan (Cygnus columbianus), lesser white-fronted goose (Anser erythropus), red-crested pochard (Netta rufina), ferruginous duck (Aythya nyroca) and great black-headed gull (Larus ichthyaetus).

Churches at Sevanavank

Beaches

There are numerous beaches along the entire lake shore. The most famous cultural monument is the Sevanavank monastery near the town of Sevan at the northwestern shore. Initially the monastery was located on an island, but the fall of the water level turned it into a peninsula. Another monastery at the western shore is Hayrivank, and further south, near Noratus, there is a field of khachkars, a cemetery with approximately 900 khachkars of different styles. Additional khachkars are found at Nerk'in Getashen on the south coast. When the water level fell, many archaeological artifacts were found, dated to 2000 years of age and older (some as old as the early Bronze Age). Most of them are now displayed in Yerevan.

External links

• — www.sevan.am all about the lake.
• Lake Sevan - Armeniapedia article with information and photos
• Rediscovering Armenia US Embassy;

40°19′N 45°21′E