Shalkar

(also Chelkar), a salt lake in Ural’sk Oblast, Kazakh SSR. The lake has an area of 200 sq km, an average depth of 5.1 m, and a maximum depth of 13 m. Salt bottoms are adjacent to the lake on the north. Fed by snow and underground springs, the lake has its highest water level in May; the level varies by 1.8 m. Lake Shalkar freezes over in November, and the ice breaks up in May. The Esenankaty River empties into the lake, and the Solianka River of the Ural River basin flows out of it. The lake is fished commercially.