Mollakara Mineral Lake
- Location
- Mollakara, Balkan Province, Turkmenistan
- Water type
- sodium chloride
- Temperature
- 35 °C
- pH
- 7.3
Water profile
Soothing — neither hot nor cold, perfect balance.
Loaded with major ions — the essential minerals (Ca, Mg).
Dense, salty water — you float without effort.
The Mollakara Mineral Lake, in the Balkan Region of western Turkmenistan near the Caspian Sea coast, is a rare hypersaline lake whose dense chloride brine is mineralised far beyond normal seawater concentration, giving it natural buoyancy similar to the Dead Sea and an extraordinary concentration of dissolved minerals long prized within local bathing tradition. The chloride mineral waters of Mollakara are drawn from the evaporitic Caspian depression geology and are associated in Turkmen folk tradition with well-being, drawing visitors from across Central Asia who come to float in the salt lake's luminous turquoise waters. The otherworldly Caspian steppe landscape surrounding the lake, the ancient Parthian ruins of Nisa near Ashgabat to the east, and the remarkable Karakum Desert with its famous Darvaza Gas Crater permanently burning since 1971 create one of Central Asia's most unusual and memorable wellness environments.