Hiking on high-mountainous lakes of Southern Kazakhstan.

“Nature will tell you a direct lie if she can” 

Charles Darwin.

Journey Wilderness Adventures North Tien-Shan Kazakhstan.

The Issyk Gorge contains the loveIy  1,760 meters above sea level. Issyk-kul lake is situated in 15km in the south of Issyk settlement in Zaili Alatau, and in 60km from Almaty.
The length is 1850m, the width is 500m, the depth is 50 - 79m. The water is green-blue. In 1959 here was opened the Issyk-kul park with hotel and restaurant. In the village of Issyk (formerly Issyk), some 50 rilometres to the southeast of Almaty in the direction of Narynkol, a broad, tarmacked road that starts after the bridge across the Issyk River leads southward into the mountains.
Following it, one reaches the picturesque woodlands of the Yesik River valley and the lake of the same name. Yesik means “hot”, and here there are subterranean springs, which not onle slightly warm the lake but also give it its particular milky-blue colour.
The Issyk lake was once called the “Pearl of the Tien-Shan”. In 1963 powerful torrents of meltwater from the glacier area poured into the upper reaches of the Issyk river. The gigantic waves destroyed the natural dam and the lake was washed away within hours.
Even now it has been only partly restored. In the village of Issyk (formerly Issyk), some 50 kilometres to the southeast of Almaty in the direction of Narynkol, a broad, tarmacked road that starts after the bridge across the Issyk River leads southward into the mountains.
Following it, one reaches the picturesque woodlands of the Issyk River valley and the lake of the same name. Issyk means “hot”, and here there are subterranean springs, which not onle slightly warm the lake but also give it its particular milky-blue colour.
The Issyk lake was once called the “Pearl of the Tien-Shan”, until fate took a hand in 1963, when a terrifying mud avalanche thundered down into the valley. The water is green-blue. In 1959 here was opened the Issyk-Kul park with hotel and restaurant.

Authority:
The guidebook across Kazakhstan . Authors Dagmar Schreiber and Jeremy Tredinnick.   Publishing house "Odyssey".2010 and the material for this page is taken from the printed edition.

Photos
Alexander Petrov.