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Lake Sevan

 

The following morning, after an excellent breakfast at the Best Western, it was a short drive to Lake Sevan and the Sevanavank Monastery.

Our local guide told us that it was the biggest lake in the world, according to some narrow classification: was it elevation or volume?  This engendered a discussion among the fellow travellers, who we discovered had each been to many other countries and locations around the world before thinking of travelling to Armenia as it's not usually at the top of most tourist's 'bucket list'.

Among the group were those, like us, who'd been to Lake Titicaca: 

 

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One of my photographs taken on Lake Titicaca (See more...)
Surface elevation: just over eight kilometres above sea level
Surface area: over eight thousand square kilometres
Volume: more than 800 cubic kilometres
 

Others had been to Lake Baikal in Siberia the largest exposed freshwater lake on the planet, with a volume of 24,000 cubic kilometres and a surface area of over 31 thousand square kilometres. But it's less than half a kilometre above sea level, so it's not an alpine lake.

Lake Sevan is definitely an alpine lake, with an elevation of 1.9 kilometres. Yet with a water volume of 33 cubic kilometres and a surface area of just over one thousand square kilometres it's dwarfed by Titicaca. 

Nevertheless our guide still has grounds for pride. Lake Sevan is among the top ten alpine lakes in the world and it's unquestionably the largest freshwater alpine lake in the previous Soviet Union.  And surprisingly we were not yet monasteried-out, so the Sevanavank Monastery added charmingly to the picturesque quality of the lake views.      

 

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Lake Sevan - unquestionably the highest freshwater lake in the Caucasus
and the Sevanavank Monastery

 

Although Lake Sevan never held as much water as its big brother on the border of Bolivia and Peru, it was once much larger than it is now. 

At the end of the last glaciation the lake filled its entire basin an area of over five thousand square kilometres.  But as the ice melt ended it shrank under natural climate change to about 1,416 square kilometres in 1936. 

That's when man intervened to accelerate this shrinkage.  Under Stalin's industrialisation, like the Aryl Sea in Uzbekistan, the lake was tapped, via a tunnel, for hydroelectricity and irrigation and the level fell by nearly 20 metres in a couple of decades.  This was causing very obvious environmental damage, devastating communities along the lake shore.  So representations were made to Khrushchev, who was inclined to reverse anything Stalin had done. So in 1964 the construction of two new tunnels was begun to divert the waters of the Arpa and Vorotan rivers to Lake Sevan.

The Arpa tunnel was completed in 1981 but the second was delayed by damage due to the devastating Armenian earthquake that struck in December 1988; the collapse of the Soviet Union; and war with Azerbaijan. It was finally completed in 2004 and since that time Lake Sevan has been rising steadily. But it still has some way to go before making good Stalin's depreciations.

Our local guide had an amusing story about how Nikita Khrushchev, a gullible Russian, was tricked into authorising the remediation tunnels by a wily Armenian (popular leader Anton Kochinyan). It was he who also allegedly tricked Leonid Brezhnev*, another gullible Russian, into authorising the Yerevan Metro.

Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, who was Russia's mercurial 'Trump like' leader, when I started to take an interest in High School, often gets bad press.  As I was told by the guide at Lenin's Tomb, in Red Square in Moscow, unlike other Russian Premiers, Nikita is not buried here because he was mad. 

The lake scam story - you can also find a version on-line: 

The Armenian leader, concerned about the lake level falling, first takes Nikita Sergeyevich to the famous Yerevan Brandy Factory then invites him out on the lake, offering a delicious local meal of the threatened local trout. 
"But how do I know the fish is local - from this lake," asks Nikita. "Give me a fishing rod and I will see for myself," he declares.  
The apparently prescient Armenian, having anticipated Nikita's scepticism, has a rod to hand and a diver waiting beneath the boat with a couple of prime trout in a bag.
Naturally they are excellent eating and after a couple of vodkas to top up the brandy, Nikita Sergeyevich slams his shoe on the desk (my elaboration - See more...), then submits to the Armenian and signs on the dotted line. 

*The Metro approval came in the 70's, after Khrushchev - in the time of Brezhnev.  It was initially approved as a light rail (tramway) because Yerevan was too small for a Metro.  Yet local administrators did indeed take advantage of the approval to build the tunnels to accommodate a wide-gauge Metro. The Stations too are typically decorative.  But it's small and is not as deep as other Soviet-era Metros like those in Baku and Tashkent, with three of the ten stations above ground. 
 

 

Fortunately for Armenia, the trout were thus saved from extinction, because they subsequently provided a major food source for the Armenian people during the post-Soviet collapse.  

 

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The fish of Lake Severn provided a major staple for the Armenian people during the post-Soviet famine
they remain an important resource today
There are more images in the Armenia Album See more...

 

 

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Travel

India and Nepal

 

 

Introduction

 

In October 2012 we travelled to Nepal and South India. We had been to North India a couple of years ago and wanted to see more of this fascinating country; that will be the most populous country in the World within the next two decades. 

In many ways India is like a federation of several countries; so different is one region from another. For my commentary on our trip to Northern India in 2009 Read here...

For that matter Nepal could well be part of India as it differs less from some regions of India than do some actual regions of India. 

These regional differences range from climate and ethnicity to economic wellbeing and religious practice. Although poverty, resulting from inadequate education and over-population is commonplace throughout the sub-continent, it is much worse in some regions than in others.

Read more: India and Nepal

Fiction, Recollections & News

On Point Counter Point

 

 

 

 

Recently I've been re-reading Point Counter Point by Aldus Huxley. 

Many commentators call it his masterpiece. Modern Library lists it as number 44 on its list of the 100 best 20th century novels in English yet there it ranks well below Brave New World (that's 5th), also by  Aldus Huxley. 

The book was an experimental novel and consists of a series of conversations, some internal to a character, the character's thoughts, in which a proposition is put and then a counterargument is presented, reflecting a musical contrapuntal motif.

Among his opposed characters are nihilists, communists, rationalists, social butterflies, transcendentalists, and the leader of the British Freemen (fascists cum Brexiteers, as we would now describe them).

Taken as a whole, it's an extended debate on 'the meaning of life'. And at one point, in my young-adult life, Point Counter Point was very influential.

Read more: On Point Counter Point

Opinions and Philosophy

The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis

 

 

Japan has 55 nuclear reactors at 19 sites.  Two more are under construction and another twelve are in the advanced planning stage.  Net Generating capacity is around 50 GW providing around 30% of the country's electricity (more here).  

As a result of Japan’s largest earthquake in history on March 11 and subsequent tsunami all reactors shut down automatically as they were designed to do but cooling systems associated with two sites had been damaged. 

Three reactor sites are adjacent to the earthquake epicentre and two were in the direct path of the tsunami.  The Fukushima-Daiichi plant belonging to Tokyo Electric Power Company was particularly hard hit.  It lost all grid connections, providing electricity, and its backup power plant was seriously damaged. 

Read more: The Fukushima Nuclear Crisis

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