Arabat Spit
| Arabat Arrow | |
| Арабатська стрілка Арабатская стрелка |
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| spit | |
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| Country | Ukraine/Russian Federation (disputed) |
|---|---|
| Regions | Crimea, Kherson Oblast |
| Districts | Henichesk, Nyzhnyohirsk, Sovyetsky, Kirovske, Leninske |
| Landmark | Azov-Syvash (Nature Preserve) |
| Population | 3,664 (2001) |
The Arabat Spit (Ukrainian: Арабатська коса, Russian: Араба́тская коса́) or Arabat Arrow is a spit (narrow strip of land) which separates a large, shallow and very salty system of lagoons named Syvash from the Sea of Azov. The spit is located between the Henichesk Strait to the north and the north-eastern shores of Crimea to the south.
The spit is commonly called the Arabat Arrow (Ukrainian: Арабатська стрілка, Arabatska strilka; Crimean Tatar: Arabat beli; Russian: Арабатская стрелка, Arabatskaya strelka) in Russia and Ukraine. "Arrow" is not an idiomatic Russian or Ukrainian name for "spit", rather this peninsula is called an arrow for unknown reasons, perhaps because it is very long and thin and rather straight.
The Arabat part of the name presumably comes from the Arabat Fortress, a 17th century Turkish fort at the southern end of the spit. "Arabat" derives from either Arabic "rabat" meaning a "military post" or Turkic "arabat" meaning a "suburb".
The Arabat Arrow is 112 km (70 mi) long, and from 0.270 to 8 km (0.17 to 5.0 mi) wide; its surface area is 395 km2 (153 sq mi) and thus the average width is 3.5 km (2.2 mi). The spit is low and straight on the Azov Sea side, whereas its Sivash side is more convoluted. It contains two areas which are 7–8 km (4–5 mi) wide and have brown-clay hills; they are located 7.5 km (4.7 mi) and 32 km (20 mi) from the Henichesk Strait. The top layers of other parts of the spit are formed by sand and shells washed by the flows of the Azov Sea. Its vegetation mostly consists of various weed grasses, thorn, festuce grasses, spear grass, crambe, salsola, salicornia, Carex colchica, tamarisk, rose hip, liquorice, etc. Offshore water is shallow with the depth reaching 2 m (7 ft) only some 100–200 m (330–660 ft) from the shore. Its temperature is around 0 °C (32 °F) in winter (near freezing), 10–15 °C (50–59 °F) in spring and autumn, and 25–30 °C (77–86 °F) in summer; air temperature is almost the same.
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Wikipedia