Қарабоғазкөл: Каспий теңізінің тұзды лагунасы

Shallow water filled depression in the northwestern corner of Turkmenistan

Garabogazköl (also spelled Kara Bogaz Gol; "Black Strait Lake"), or Garabogazköl Aylagy ("Black Strait Lake Bay"), is a shallow, highly saline lagoon off the Caspian Sea in northwestern Turkmenistan. The lagoon has a variable surface area typically about .

The salinity of the lagoon is on average about 35%, compared to 1.2% in the Caspian Sea and between 3% and 4% in oceans worldwide. Due to the exceptionally high salinity, comparable to the Dead Sea, it has little to no marine vegetation. Large evaporite deposits consisting mostly of salt on the south shore have been harvested by the local population since the 1920s, but in the 1930s manual collection stopped and the industry shifted northwest to its present center near Garabogaz. From the 1950s onward, groundwater was pumped from levels lower than the bay itself, yielding more valuable types of salts. In 1963, construction began at Garabogaz on a modern plant for increased production of salt products year round, independent of natural evaporation. Construction of the plant was completed in 1973. In March 1980, workers blocked the Caspian link, due to concerns that evaporation was accelerating a fall in Caspian Sea. reportedly poisoning the soil and causing health problems for hundreds of kilometers downwind to the east.

In 1984 the lake became completely dry. In June 1992, when Caspian Sea levels rose again, the barrier was removed by order of Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov, allowing Caspian water to refill the lagoon.

The lagoon is the subject of Russian writer Konstantin Paustovsky's 1932 book Kara Bugaz. In it, he praises the setting up of the local salt industry by the Soviet government in the 1930s. In 1935, film director Aleksandr Razumny made a film Kara bugaz (Кара Бугаз) based on Paustovsky's Kara Bugaz, with music by Mikhail Ippolitov Ivanov.