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History and naming

The present name of the lake originates from the word "balkas" of Tatar, Kazakh and Southern Altai languages which means "tussocks in a swamp".

From as early as 103 BC up until the 8th century, the Balkhash polity surrounding the lake, whose Chinese name was Yibohai 夷播海, was known to the Chinese as 布谷/布庫/布蘇 "Bugu/Buku/Busu." From the 8th century on, the land to the south of the lake, between it and the Tian Shan mountains, was known in Turkic as Jetisu "Seven Rivers" (Semirechye in Russian). It was a land where the nomadic Turks and Mongols of the steppe mingled cultures with the settled peoples of Central Asia.

In 1864, the lake and its neighboring area were ceded to the Russian Empire under the Treaty of Tarbagatai. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the lake became part of Kazakhstan.