Turkmenistan - Badhyz State Nature Reserve

Badhyz is one of the most spectacular nature reserves in Central Asia. It encompasses three main types of landscape: 1. The north and west consists of the plateau and hilly ridges of the Gezgyadyk range in the foothills of the Eastern Kopetdag mountains, and is deeply dissected especially to the west where there are deep stony gorges. 2. To the east the mountains fall away to a rolling hilly plateau with desert steppe. 3. In the south the Eroylanduz basin and salt lake and the Kyzyljar depression form the limits of the plateau. Soils are sandy with loess-lime loams. The site holds large populations of extremely rare wild mammals such as the Asiatic Wild Ass or Kulan Equus hemionus kulan, Persian Leopard Panthera pardus saxicolor, Goitered Gazelle Gazella subgutturosa, Turkmen Wild Goat Capra aegagrus turkmenica and Afghan Urial Ovis orientalis cycloceros. Moreover, the landscape is spectacular, with broadly rolling land (up to 200m) giving way to the Duzenkyr and Ellibir heights in the north; in the west it is mountainous (800-1000m above sea level); at the other extreme in the south lies the "lunar landscape" of the closed saline Eroylanduz depression (10 600 ha, lying up to 500m below sea level) in the south. The site is situated between the Tedzhen and Kushka rivers.