It is the 500 km (310 mi) long ancient valley of the Kamyshlov river, which has left a chain of disconnected residual lakes having fresh and briny waters.

The upper stretch begins in Kazakhstan, at the Kamysakty river, which flows from the Kokchetav Upland into the Bolshoy Tarangul lake at 54°02′N 68°22′E / 54.033°N 68.367°E / 54.033; 68.367.

Some of the main ones are Kamysty, Taldyaral, Ulken Zharma (Үлкен Жарма), Reinfeld, Pokrovskoye, Sandy, Churino, Severnoye, Sergeevskoye, Zheltoye, Ovtsevodskoye, Krugloye and Topkoye.

[5][6] The steppe and forest-steppe zones of the southern West Siberian Plain have a cyclic intervals of wet and dry spells.

The water levels were so low that many lakes turned into grassy tracts or desert depressions with sparse vegetation.