Sarez Lake is one of the most beautiful lakes in Tajikistan, located in the Pamirs.
It was formed on February 6, 1911, after a strong 7-magnitude earthquake, when the Murgab River was dammed as a result of a huge landslide, thus forming a natural dam 567 meters high. The echo of the earthquake was recorded thousands of kilometers from the place of events - at the Pulkovo seismic station near St. Petersburg. The filled hollow in the same year flooded the village of Sarez, which gave the name to the lake.
Sarez Lake is almost 60 km long (55.8), and its depth is about 500 meters. This lake is called the pearl of the Pamir Mountains - it is so extraordinarily beautiful. The path to the lake from the valley of the river Bartang (Murghab) starts in the village of Nisur and passes through the Zharnogdashttag pass to the village of Borchadiv. From here, the path leads up the left bank of the Murgab, either rising high above the gorge, or going down to the water itself.
By the way, information for tourists who want to see the Pamir "water" miracle with their own eyes: to visit the lake, you must have a special pass, since the territory of the lake is under protection.
Not far from the stream called Khurmaher, the trail turns right and rises steeply to the Usoy dam. Behind this obstruction, tourists first see Lake Shadau, and only then Lake Sarez. Shadau has the same history of origin as Sarez, but compared to the latter, it is small, and its length is only 4 kilometers. Shadau is in no way inferior to Lake Sarez in beauty, the water in it is bright turquoise, while in Sarez it is dark blue. The shores of Lake Sarez are very steep, and it is extremely difficult to walk along them in still unexplored places. Therefore, tourists do not go to these places, but prefer to connect the bays and shores of Lake Sarez with routes through mountain passes.
In the north, Sarez is surrounded by the western end of the Muzkol ridge, the maximum height of which reaches 5900 meters. In the west and south, the lake is surrounded by spurs of the Rushan and North Alichur ranges; to this day, many of their peaks, 5800 meters high, remain unconquered. In particular, the little-known highest point of the region, rising at an altitude of 5936 meters, still remains among the unconquered. It is located 2.5 kilometers from the Sadmid pass, and is higher than the 5931-meter Kulin peak, which is located above the right bank of the Langar River.
Sad birth story
Lake Sarez was formed quite recently, only a hundred years ago. It just happened under very depressing circumstances.
The fact is that on the night of February 5-6, 1911, at 11:15 pm, an event occurred in the Pamirs that somewhat changed the geography of the region and caused pain and harm to many people. This event was a terrible earthquake that killed 105 people.
That night made the mountains move, which, of course, caused a strong collapse of the stones. However, this phenomenon was not uncommon for the surrounding residents, they must have run out of their homes in anticipation of a new earth shock, when a huge piece of the mountain with unexpected ease took off and, picking up speed, collapsed in a huge mass into the valley. The rock became a tombstone, under which the village of Usoy and all its inhabitants still rest. In addition, the mountain blocked the channel of the Murgab, forming in the blink of an eye a natural dam half a kilometer high. As a result of the collapse, a dust fog formed over the river, which dissipated only after a few days.
So, on that ill-fated night, from strong tremors, a terrible mountain collapse occurred in the Murghab valley near the village of Usoy, (then) Oroshor volost, Pamir region, from which the entire village under the rubble with all the population and livestock died.
At the same time, for some time the misfortune that occurred in the Oroshor volost was not known either in Khorog or at the Pamir post. And it happened so because massive collapses in the valleys of Bartang and Kudara completely destroyed those unpretentious "artificial structures" made of poles in the form of stairs and balconies, which are usually arranged by local residents in impassable areas to maintain communication through the valleys. No one could have guessed what had happened, except, perhaps, the inhabitants of the village of Usoy, who were buried under a collapsed mountain. In addition to the destroyed village, four more nearby settlements (more than 50 households) were completely destroyed.
Probably, the formed lake should have been called Usoysky in memory of those who remained forever buried under the rubble. The village of Sarez was located a little higher upstream. It was flooded later, when the basin began to rapidly fill with water. In 1911, water was rising by an average of thirty-six, in 1915 - by eighteen, in 1934 - by ten centimeters per day. By 1913, the length of the lake had reached twenty-eight kilometers; by the end of the thirties - seventy-five. By the beginning of the forties, the level of the lake was established somewhere in forty meters from the edge of the blockage.
Threat
The natural dam, formed during the 1911 earthquake and now known as the Usoi blockage, according to scientists, may collapse. Since this dam is seismically rather unstable, a collapse may occur during the next strong earthquake. The threat is that then several states may be flooded, namely the territory of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Therefore, in 2000, the governments of these four countries turned to the world community with a request to provide the region with intellectual and financial assistance in solving the problem of Lake Sarez. In the same year, under the management of the World Bank, an international project called “Sarez Lake: Risk Reduction Project” was launched. In principle, intellectual assistance was provided, but funds are needed to turn the idea into reality.
So, disaster can happen at any moment. But when exactly it will happen and whether it will happen at all is still a big question, the answer to which no one knows, even those notorious scientists who prophesied the disappearance of Sarez. Therefore, panicking about this and waiting with fear for another devastating earthquake in the Usoy dam area is like waiting for an alien attack or a new ice age. In this respect, nature is a very mysterious thing, and we can only humbly submit to what she creates or destroys.