KARA-KUL

kara-kul, the name of two lakes ("great" and "little ") of russian turkestan, in the province of ferghana, and on the pamir plateau. great kara-kul, 12 m. long and 10 m. wide (formerly much larger), is under 39 deg. n., to the south of the trans-alai range, and lies at an altitude of 13,200 ft.; it is surrounded by high mountains, and is reached from the north over the kyzyl-art pass (14,015 ft.). a peninsula projecting from the south shore and an island off the north shore divide it into two basins, a smaller eastern one which is shallow, 42 to 63 ft., and a larger western one, which has depths of 726 to 756 ft. it has no drainage outlet. little kara-kul lies in the north-east pamir, or sarikol, north-west of the mustagh-ata peak (25,850 ft.), at an altitude of 12,700 ft. it varies in depth from 79 ft. in the south to 50 to 70 ft. in the middle, and 1000 ft. or more in the north. it is a moraine lake; and a stream of the same name flows through it, but is named ghez in its farther course towards kashgar in east turkestan. kara-kum ("black sands"), a flat desert in russian central asia. it extends to nearly 110,000 sq. m., and is bounded on the n.w. by the ust-urt plateau, between the sea of aral and the caspian sea, on the n.e. by the amu-darya, on the s. by the turkoman oases, and on the w. it nearly reaches the caspian sea. only part of this surface is covered with sand. there are broad expanses (_takyrs_) of clay soil upon which water accumulates in the spring; in the summer these are muddy, but later quite dry, and merely a few solanaceae and bushes grow on them. there is also _shor_, similar to the above but encrusted with salt and gypsum, and relieved only by solanaceae along their borders. the remainder is occupied with sand, which, according to v. mainov, assumes five different forms. (1) _barkhans_, chiefly in the east, which are mounds of loose sand, 15 to 35 ft. high, hoof-shaped, having their gently sloping convex sides turned towards the prevailing winds, and a concave side, 30 deg. to 40 deg. steep, on the opposite slope. they are disposed in groups or chains, and the winds drive them at an average rate of 20 ft. annually towards the south and south-east. some grass (_stipa pennata_) and bushes of _saksaul_ (_haloxylon ammodendron_) and other steppe bushes (e.g. _calligonium_, _halimodendron_ and _atraphaxis_) grow on them. (2) mounds of sand, of about the same size, but irregular in shape and of a slightly firmer consistence, mostly bearing the same bushes, and also _artemisia_ and _tamarix_; they are chiefly met with in the east and south. (3) a sandy desert, slightly undulating, and covered in spring with grass and flowers (e.g. tulips, _rheum_, various umbelliferae), which are soon burned by the sun; they cover very large spaces in the south-east. (4) sands disposed in waves from 50 to 70 ft., and occasionally up to 100 ft. high, at a distance of from 200 to 400 ft. from each other; they cover the central portion, and their vegetation is practically the same as in the preceding division. (5) dunes on the shores of the caspian, composed of moving sands, 35 to 80 ft. high and devoid of vegetation. a typical feature of the kara-kum is the number of "old river beds," which may have been either channels of tributaries of the amu and other rivers or depressions which contained elongated salt lakes. water is only found in wells, 10 to 20 m. apart--sometimes as much as 100 m.--which are dug in the takyrs and give saline water, occasionally unfit to drink, and in pools of rain-water retained in the lower parts of the takyrs. the population of the kara-kum, consisting of nomad kirghiz and turkomans, is very small. the region in the north of the province of syr-darya, between lake aral and lake chalkarteniz, is also called kara-kum. (p. a. k.; j. t. be.) karaman (anc. _laranda_, a name still used by the christian inhabitants), a town in the konia vilayet of asia minor, situated in the plain north of mount taurus. pop. 8000. it has few industries and little trade, but the medieval walls, well preserved castle and mosques are interesting, and the old seljuk _medresse_, or college, is a beautiful building. karaman is connected with konia by railway, having a station on the first section of the bagdad railway. little is known of its ancient history except that it was destroyed by perdiccas about 322