Lake Kahul

Lake Kahul lay within the lower Danube landscape, receiving the river of the same name and separated from the Danube by marshy ground. The road between Reni and Izmail passed across this zone. In 1770 the lake became a landmark in the military operations of the Russo-Ottoman War. Reporting to Catherine II, Pyotr Rumyantsev distinguished the Ottoman army beside Lake Kahul from the Crimean Tatar forces near Lake Yalpuh. His account describes anxiety over the Russian supply convoy and the movement of Ottoman troops toward the mouth of the Kahul River. Rumyantsev then attacked on 21 July by the Russian calendar, equivalent to 1 August, defeating the grand vizier's army. The lake thus belonged to a landscape of camps, river mouths and constrained supply routes; the battle's name refers to the wider Kahul position rather than fighting on the lake itself.