On 15 February, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan hosted a meeting of the National Commission of Turkmenistan for UNESCO Activities. An important international project was discussed at the meeting – the preparation of a joint Turkmen-Uzbek nomination for the Koytendag mountain ecosystem to include this transboundary territory in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Specialists from the Koytendag State Nature Reserve of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of Turkmenistan and researchers from the Surkhan State Nature Reserve of the Ministry of Ecology, Environmental Protection and Climate Change of Uzbekistan are taking part in the preparation of the nomination. The joint activity focuses on the collection and analysis of data on rare natural sites in the region, which is a key step towards substantiating the value of the ecosystem for inclusion in the UNESCO list.
Hydrobiologist Mikhail Pereladov, PhD in Biology, Head of the Department of Aquatic Organisms of coastal Ecosystems at the All-Russian Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography, who has studied the Koytendag caves for many years, calls them “a grandiose natural monument.”
The Kapkutan cave system is particularly impressive – a maze of intricately interconnected underground corridors, halls decorated with stalactites and stalagmites, stone “flowers”, druses of gypsum crystals, onyx marble drips, sometimes in the form of a theatrical curtain.
“The variety of onyx colors is amazing: light, honey, dark with a rare decorative pattern and a mother-of-pearl luster. There are small lakes with formations of cave “pearls”, “nests” of the thinnest threads of crystalline gypsum are formed, and a few inclusions of rare minerals, as well as celestine and fluorite, have been found,” says the scientist.
Despite their geographical proximity, the karst systems on the Turkmen and Uzbek sides of the ridge differ significantly in origin and characteristics.
An important feature of the Turkmen caves is their unique genesis. Unlike the standard water karst on the Uzbek side of the ridge, Koytendag caves are created by a geothermal environment, which explains the abundance of gypsum instead of limestone. They also have an even, warm climate, especially in the depths of the karst interior. Pereladov notes that there was no such phenomenon anywhere else in the former USSR – the Caucasian and Crimean caves are mostly cold, where dangerous powerful underground streams of icy water of enormous destructive power.
The cave systems of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are isolated from each other at medium depths – there is no direct connection between them due to the deep valley and the canyons dividing the ridge. The cartography of the Kapkutan system and the structure of the geological strata indicate their extension away from the border of the two states, towards the foothill valley.
“Practical studies and subsequent cartography of the Kapkutan system, as well as the structure of the geological strata, showed their extension in the opposite direction from the border of the two states to the foothill valley. This also applies to the Geophysical Cave and other depths that our expeditions passed through in the last century. In short, the isolation of Uzbek and Turkmen caves is a well-studied fact both from the surface and underground,” says Pereladov.
However, at significant depths below the karst zone, where the water horizon is located, a potential hydrological connection between the cave systems may exist. This hypothesis is supported by the presence of numerous powerful springs emerging from the mountain range’s base on both sides of the Turkmen-Uzbek border. A “communicating vessels” model is proposed, suggesting that the water level in these subterranean reservoirs fluctuates in response to variations in precipitation, rising during periods of high rainfall and receding during dry periods.
Mikhail Pereladov emphasizes that to date, only about five percent of the ridge’s territory with the potential for caves has been studied. This is due to the complexity of the terrain for conducting research – the landscape is geologically heterogeneous, rugged by canyons of secondary tectonics.
“In other words, the mountainous cross-border area is poorly explored, it needs the research of specialists with deep speleoscientific thinking, who will continue our work, including on the study of hot hydrogen sulfide springs, the outputs of which can come from a single underground reservoir,” the researcher concluded.
Joint research by Turkmen and Uzbek specialists in preparation for the UNESCO nomination opens up new perspectives for studying this unique natural complex. The inclusion of the Koytendag mountain ecosystem in the World Heritage List will not only emphasize the international importance of this natural site, but will also contribute to its further study and protection.///nCa, 17 March 2025 (based on the materials of the Newspaper “Neutral Turkmenistan”, photo credit – Viktor Maltsev)