In this photograph, the middle range that we call "the first research area" is a wetland complex in a floodplain along the "Shishkhid River" (lower range), with 10 or more crescent lakes and temporary ponds, sedge meadows, and forest floors. These forest floors contain many decaying logs where individual salamanders of Salamandrella keyserlingii hide themselves during the daytime. A whitish coloration discernible in the "Khordil Saridag Mountains" (upper range), the top of which is 3240 m high, is caused by the surface of the mountains having lots of phosphates.