Lake Milh

Lake Milh
From space, June 1996
Coordinates	32°45′N 43°38′E / 32.750°N 43.633°E / 32.750; 43.633Coordinates: 32°45′N 43°38′E / 32.750°N 43.633°E / 32.750; 43.633
Type	Saline
Primary inflows	Canal from Lake Habbaniyah which comes from the Euphrates River
Primary outflows	Euphrates River
Basin countries	Iraq

Lake Milh (Arabic: بحيرة ملح‎‎, literally Sea of Salt, pronounced Bahr al-Milh), also known as Razzaza Lake, is located a few miles west of Karbala, Iraq (32°41′N 43°40′E / 32.683°N 43.667°E / 32.683; 43.667). It is alternately called Lake Razazah (Arabic: بحيرة الرزازة‎‎). Lake Milh is a depression into which excess water from Lake Habbaniyah, which comes from the Euphrates River, is diverted through a controlled escape channel or canal. The lake is listed as a wetland of international importance. The lake is rather shallow and water levels change with the seasons. Due to the salts and the changing water levels, this largest freshwater lake in Iraq has lost its important stock of fish species and only a few recreational areas exist around the lake.

The lake, also termed as "Kerbala Gap” has a large expanse of 156,234 hectares (386,060 acres) enclosed by deserts with a few low hills on the shore line. The lake and its surrounding areas lie in an elevation range of 28 to 56 metres (92 to 184 ft). It is a deep closed lake in a sand/silt basin. The lake's western part of the valley has thick forest cover, apart from orchards. In the eastern and southern parts, the terrain is of flat arid/semi-desert type. Mud flats are a common feature in the lake.

The geological formation in and around the lake consists of marls, siltstones, gypsum/anhydrite, and limestone bands, but mostly silts.

The lake is at a distance of 95 kilometres (59 mi) to the south-west of Baghdad, and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the west of Karbala in the Karbala Governorate.

The lake was constructed during the latter half of the 1970s, below the Haur Al Habbaniya as a flood control measure to regulate the flood flows in the Euphrates River.