[2][3] Founded in 1910, Paraskovyevka (Russian: Парасковьевка) was a farming settlement located 0.5 kilometers (0.31 mi) to the southwest of the Belenkoye lakeshore.

[4] Nowadays the ruins of the houses of Paraskovyevka and other vestiges of former habitation, can still be seen, but the circumstances in which the village was abandoned remain a mystery.

It has an oval shape, roughly oriented from WNW to ESE, with a length of less than 2 kilometers (1.2 mi).

[6][2] The lake is surrounded by flat steppe landscape, salt pans and cultivated fields.

Artemia salina crustaceans live in the lake and are periodically harvested for commercial purposes.