THE ETERNAL LIFE OF ANCIENT YAKSART

Rarely the inhabitants of Central Asia get to see so much water. We are standing on the bridge across Syrdarya, looking at the ancient Yaksart and keeping stunned silence. This rainy year the stream has no less than 1000 cubic meters of water in a second. A usual thing in the past it is a pleasant phenomenon now.
Naryn and Karadarya merges to form this river that runs 2700 km from Central Tien Shan glaciers to Small Aral.
Boats never disturb the great surface of the river, only the occasional fish splashes the water and flock of gulls flies from a secluded island.
«Tugayny» forests of the poplars, willows and djida surround the river. Part of the trees are
bounded by lianas, from which liana lomonos can be easily distinguished for its flower’s white fluff. In fact, the biggest forest massif Southern Kazakhstan oblast is located along the Syrdarya.
After sometime at the bridge we get in the car and drive to floodplain lake of Syrdarya. But before that we visit the cordon, where the owner of these places, forester Yuriy Shumeyko, lives.

Aleksei Goncharov

At the “tugay” cordon.
Cordon, located in five kilometers from the asphalted road, is the small two-room house with little kitchen, few adjacent barns and two vans, which are close to the house and right in front of the place where Syrdarya smoothly changes its direction.
Observing the mighty river, I