About 11,000 years ago the ice shield of the last Ice Age covering the Armenian mountains started to melt. The new stage of the formation of Armenian relief began. The passing glacier formed a lot of cirques (an amphitheater-like valleys) on its way, part of which became tarns. A tarn is a mountain lake or pool formed in a cirque by waters of a melting glacier and snow that in a cold climate does not evaporate but accumulates and melts.
Tarn lakes can be found on Zangezur, Gegham, Vardenis and other mountain ridges of Armenia. But the most famous of them is Qarilich lake. Qarilich or Qari lich means stone lake. According to ancient popular beliefs the lake is fed by stone rivers, called kurums.
Qarilich is located on the Aragats mountain on the altitude of 3200 meters. The average temperature of the warmest month of August is about +10 C here. When it’s +40 C down in Yerevan, it’s about +10 on the Qarilich and about +0 on the Aragats summit. Qarilich’s surface is only 0,12 sq.km and depth is maximum 8 meters. It’s not a big but very picturesque lake.
Qarilich is a transfer point on the way to the Aragats’ peaks. Going up the Aragats’ slope from the Qarilich, you can reach the Southern peak (the easiest), the Western peak and the shoulder. The least is the most convenient and safe way to descend to the crater and then climb the Northern peak of Aragats.
Institute of Physics of Cosmic Rays is situated on the bank of Qarilich lake. Cosmic Ray research at high altitude stations on Mt. Aragats, Armenia, was founded by famous Armenian physicists, Alikhanyan brothers, in 1943. Till now a group of scientists live on the station, measure cosmic rays and suns emissions.
Photo by Suren Manvelyan [see full size]
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