Toktogul Reservoir, Artificial lake in Toktogul District, Kyrgyzstan.
Toktogul Reservoir is an artificial lake on the Naryn River in Toktogul District, Jalal-Abad Region, Kyrgyzstan, formed by the dam of the Toktogul hydroelectric station. It covers 284.3 km², stretches 65 km in length, reaches 12 km at its widest and 215 m at its deepest, with a total volume of 19.5 km³. The dam itself is 292 m long, 43 m wide and 215 m high. The town of Toktogul stands on the northern shore.
Construction of the Toktogul hydroelectric scheme on the Naryn River lasted more than ten years and was completed by the mid-1970s; filling of the basin began in 1973, and Kyrgyz sources date the start of impoundment to 1974. The dam is 292 m long, 43 m wide and 215 m high. The cascade pairs the 1,200 MW Toktogul plant with the 800 MW Kurpsai station.
The reservoir takes its name from Toktogul Satylganov, the 19th-century Kyrgyz akyn poet and komuz player born in the Ketmen-Tyube valley now partly flooded by the water. The reservoir and the dam's construction appeared in Soviet documentary cinema, including "Toktogul Sea — Day One" (1973), directed by Algimantas Vidugiris, which recorded the damming of the Naryn and the first filling.
The reservoir lies on the Naryn river in Toktogul District, Jalal-Abad Region, with the town of Toktogul on its northern shore. Its level swings widely with snowmelt and turbine releases, from a maximum of 19.5 km³ down toward the 5.5 km³ dead volume, so shorelines shift. Water temperature runs from about +5 °C in winter to +25 °C in summer.
The reservoir feeds two power stations in the Toktogul cascade: the Toktogul plant at 1,200 MW and Kurpsai at 800 MW. Its usable volume is 14 km³, with 5.5 km³ left as the "dead" level at which generation stops. The 1973 documentary "Toktogul Sea — Day One", directed by Algimantas Vidugiris, filmed the damming of the Naryn and the first filling.
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