Arabat Spit
Template:Short description Template:Infobox landform
The Arabat Spit (Template:Langx; Template:Langx; Template:Langx), or Arabat Arrow (Template:Langx), is a barrier spit that separates the large, shallow, salty Syvash lagoons from the Sea of Azov. The spit runs between the Henichesk Strait in the north and the north-eastern shores of Crimea in the south.<ref>Semenov, p. 624.</ref> It is the largest of several spits of the Sea of Azov.
Name
The spit is commonly called the Arabat Arrow (Template:Langx, Arabatska strilka; Template:Langx; Template:Langx, Arabatskaya strelka) in Russia and Ukraine. It has been called an "arrow" since at least the middle of the 19th century.
The Arabat part of the name 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 Arabic "rabad" meaning a "suburb".<ref name=fort>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Geography and geology
The Arabat Arrow is Template:Convert long,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and from Template:Convert wide.<ref name=kki>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=bse1>Template:GSEn</ref> Its surface area is Template:Convert and thus the average width is Template:Convert. The spit is low and straight on the Azov Sea side, whereas its Sivash side is more convoluted. It contains two areas which are Template:Convert wide and have brown-clay hills. They are located Template:Convert and Template:Convert from the Henichesk Strait.<ref name=p1>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=b1>Semenov, p.111</ref>
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.<ref name=p1/><ref name=b1/>
Offshore water is shallow with the depth reaching Template:Convert only some Template:Convert from the shore.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Its temperature is around Template:Convert in winter (near freezing), Template:Convert in spring and autumn, and Template:Convert in summer; air temperature is almost the same.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The spit is very young and was created by sedimentation processes around 1100–1200 AD.<ref name=p4>Template:Cite book</ref>
The Template:Ill is located in the southern part of the spit and the adjacent area of Crimea, together with the adjacent aquatory.
History
The Arabat Arrow was wild until 1835 when a road and five stations at Template:Convert intervals were built along it for postal delivery. Later in the 19th century, 25 rural and 3 military settlements and one village named Arabat appeared on the spit. The rural population amounted to some 235 people whose occupation was mostly fishing, farming, and salt production. The latter activity is traditional for the region due to the vast areas of shallow and very saline water in the Sivash lagoons. Salt production in the 19th century was about Template:Convert on the Arabat Arrow alone.<ref name=b1/>
During the deportation of Crimean Tatars on May 18, 1944, most of the Tatars were forcibly transported from Crimea to Central Asia in freight wagons. The Soviet authorities tried to drown the Crimean Tatars from the Arabat spit in the sea on a barge, and those who tried to swim ashore were shot.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Unreliable source
Nowadays, the spit is a health resort and its Azov Sea side is used as a beach.
While the spit is geophysically part of the Crimean Peninsula, politically its northern half belongs to Kherson Oblast, Ukraine, while its southern portion is located within the boundaries of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a territory internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, which came under Russian military occupation in 2014. Since then, the Russian Federation administers the peninsula as the Republic of Crimea.<ref name="Reuters"/><ref name="Ukraine crisis timeline BBC"/> The entirety of the spit was occupied during the annexation, although Russia withdrew its forces from the northern Kherson side in December 2014.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The entire spit came under Russian control on 25 February 2022, one day after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Template:Cn
Populated places
The rural communities of Henicheska Hirka, Shchaslyvtseve and Strilkove are located in the northern section of the spit, within the Kherson Oblast. The village of Template:Ill is located in the southern part of the spit, administered as part of the Republic of Crimea.
Tourism
Arabat Spit is a popular place for summer vacation among Ukrainians because of the warm water of the Sea of Azov. There are a variety of hotels and guesthouses on the first line of the sea. Arabat Spit is popular among kitesurfers and windsurfers.
See also
Notes
References
Bibliography
- Template:Cite book
- Shutov, Yu. "Арабатская стрелка" (in Russian) Tavria, 1983
External links
Template:Crimea topics Template:Tourist attractions in Crimea Template:Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation Template:Authority control