Silk Road Adventures in Kazakhstan.

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page” 

Augustine of Hippo.

Kazakhstan and Central Asia Climbing.

The lakes of the Almaty Nature Reserve are located in the upper reaches of large rivers flowing from glaciers, which animate moraine and dam lakes. The second largest moraine lake Muzkol, after Lake Akkol, is located in the upper reaches of the Issyk River at an altitude of 3,400 meters above sea level, its area is 46,300 square meters, and its depth reaches 25.5 meters.
In the basin of this river there are two more lakes of landslide-tectonic origin, Issyk and Akkol. The beautiful Lake Issyk existed in its original form until 1963. On a hot July day, a destructive mudflow broke through a natural dam in a matter of minutes and wiped out the picturesque mountain wonder from the face of the earth.
The preserved eastern bay of the lake is currently slowly replenishing with water and gradually increasing in area. Lakes in the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains are of tectonic, dam-dam, glacial-moraine and dam nature, fed from glaciers, rivers and underground groundwater.
Lakes of rockfall-dam origin were formed as a result of mountain collapses in river valleys and earthquakes. Their shores are rocky and steep, up to several tens or hundreds of meters deep. The water is clean and fresh, surface and underground flow.
Such lakes included the pearl of the Trans-Ili Alatau - the large Issyk Lake. All glacial lakes are located at an altitude of 3200 - 3500 meters above sea level in the central highest part of the Zailiskiy Alatau ridge, along with moraine lakes located below the end of the glaciers.
Lakes Akkol (White Lake) and Bozkol (Grey Lake) in the upper reaches of the Issyk River and others play a significant role in the uniform feeding of rivers, but pose a danger, since glacial and moraine dams sometimes break through during floods and become the beginning of the formation of mudflows.
Currently, the condition of these lakes is being carefully monitored in order to warn residents of the foothills about the impending danger. Work is underway to drain water evenly from them. In the lower belt of mountains and in the foothills there are lakes fed by groundwater of natural origin and those created by man.
These are favorite summer vacation spots for residents of Almaty and numerous tourists.

Authority:
Ishkov E. Reserves of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Almaty, Kazakhstan, 2006. Under the general edition of Roman Yashchenko. The international union of conservation of IUCN - The World Conservation Union. Physiographic features (across Kerteshev, Vagapov, Yashchenko, 2001). 

Photos by:
Alexander Petrov.