Lake Issyk

It is estimated that the lake was formed in about 8-10 millennia, as a result of a catastrophic earthquake that caused the collapse of the right slope of the gorge. After the collapse, the gorge was blocked by a dam with a height of about 300 m. Behind the dam at an altitude of 1756 m, a lake with a size of 1750 x 1500 m and a depth of 50 to 90 m. the water Temperature in the lake in summer does not exceed 8°C, fish are not found in the lake. The purity and transparency of the water was such that at a depth of up to 10 m, on a Sunny day, you could see the bottom. In the middle of the XIX century, after the formation of the village of Nadezhdinskaya at the mouth of the gorge, the lake became known in Russia and Europe. Every Explorer who visited these regions considered it his duty to visit the lake. One of the first researchers was the geographer Semenov Tien-Shansky, who mentioned the lake in his diaries: "we were delighted to see at our feet the "Green lake" (in Kazakh "Jasyl-Kol"), which had the purest and most transparent, thick bluish-green color of the TRANS-Baikal beryl. Beyond the lake rose a bold and steep jagged ridge of high squirrel ... this mountain the guide called Issyk-bash."

The Caspian tiger was found in the Issyk gorge and around the lake at least at the beginning of the 1900s and is mentioned in the diaries of Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky.

The lake is mostly famous for the way it was created (as a result of an ancient natural landslide damming a valley), destroyed (another natural landslide destroying that dam in 1963, with a subsequent flood damaging the city of Esik), and re-created (with human help).

• Panoramio - Photo of Lake Issyk
• At the top of the mountain, the view of Lake Issyk below and the surrounding mountains