Hamun-i-Helmand

Hāmūn-e Helmand (also known as Hāmūn-e Hīrmand, “Lake Hāmūn”, Hamoun Oasis, Persian: دریاچه هامون Daryācheh-ye Hāmūn or Daryācheh-ye Sīstān (“Lake Sīstān”)) is a shallow, marshy, lake (or lagoon) or hāmūn located in eastern Iran, near the Afghanistan border. It is fed by the Helmand River, which starts in the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan. Together with two sibling shallow lakes, Hāmūn-e Sabari and Hāmūn-e Puzak, which extend into the territory of present-day Afghanistan, it forms the extended wetlands of the endorheic Sīstān Basin which straddles a large border region in southeastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan. Lake Hāmūn is fed primarily by water catchments in neighboring Afghanistan. In 1976, when rivers in Afghanistan...