In the north-east of Central Asia, in the heart of the Tien Shan mountains is a small country - Kyrgyzstan. A country that is rightfully proud of its nature of extraordinary beauty: mountain ranges, beautiful gorges, waterfalls and lakes. Majestic mountains, spread out under a bright blue sky, occupy almost three quarters of the country, which is why Kyrgyzstan is called a mountain country.
Issyk-Kul - a hot lake
Between the Kungei Ala-Too and Terskey Ala-Too ranges (which means “facing the sun” and “facing away from the sun” in Kyrgyz) of the Northern Tien Shan (translated as “sky ridge”), at an altitude of 1609 m above the level the sea is the pearl of Kyrgyzstan - one of the largest mountain lakes in the world, the beautiful Issyk-Kul. The length of the lake is 82 km, the width is 60 m, and the depth is 702 m. If suddenly, someone decides to go around the lake, then the distance will spill over more than 1000 kilometers.
The name Issyk-Kul is translated from Kyrgyz as "hot lake", and this is a reliable fact - the pond does not freeze all year round, even in winter. More than 100 rivers and rivulets flow into Issyk-Kul, but not one of them exits. The hollow of the lake is surrounded on all sides by powerful mountain ranges with snowy "hats" on the peaks.
Legends of Issyk-Kul
There are many legends and myths about this unique lake. One of the oldest is the legend of a beautiful girl, the daughter of a poor nomad. Learning about the beauty of the girl, an angry and fierce khan kidnapped her and imprisoned her in his fortress, located on a steep mountain peak. Every day, the khan showered her with gifts in the hope to win over the beauty’s heart, promising her freedom and all the gold of the world, but to no avail. Once, distraught with despair, the khan burst into the girl’s room and tried to capture her by force. The beauty ran to the window and, cursing the khan, rushed into the bottomless abyss. And then, suddenly, the impregnable walls faltered, granite vaults collapsed, and water poured from everywhere. She arrived and arrived until she flooded the entire valley, and on the site of the khan's fortress the turquoise expanse of Lake Issyk-Kul sparkled, clear as crystal and hot, like the heart of a proud girl.
Another legend tells that at the bottom of the lake are the treasures of Genghis Khan. The sons of the great conqueror after his death in 1227 imitated a funeral in Ordos, and in fact secretly sent his body along with innumerable funerary values to Issyk-Kul. The son of Genghis Khan - Chagatay, ordered to make a coffin out of heavy-duty mountain juniper, in which they placed the body of the deceased, gold and jewelry, and lowered into the abyss of the lake. The remaining values were hidden in a mountain cave. The cruel khan ordered all participants in the burial to chop off their heads and lay down a mound from them on the shore of Issyk-Kul.
According to the third legend, the Apostle Matthew ended his days in Issyk-Kul, and to this day the ruins of the "Armenian monastery" are still on the bottom of the lake. So, on the Catalan world map dated 1375, on the northern shore of Lake Issyk-Kul there is a building with a cross, and next to it there is an inscription: “A place called Issyk-Kul. In this place is the monastery of the Armenian brothers, where the body of St. Matthew, the Apostle is and the Evangelist. " In recent years, the search for the monastery and holy relics has intensified.
To this day, the waters of Lake Issyk-Kul and its environs keep many secrets and mysteries, and part with them very reluctantly.
A bit of history
The first explorer of the lake was the great Russian traveler Pyotr Petrovich Semenov-Tyanshansky in 1850-1860. XIX century. He wrote about Issyk-Kul: “It is difficult to imagine something grander than the landscape that appears to the traveler from Kungei across the lake to the Heavenly Range. The dark blue surface of Issyk-Kul can safely compete with the same blue surface of Lake Geneva, it seemed to me from the western side of Kungei is almost unlimited in the East, and the incomparable grandeur of the last plan of the landscape gives it such grandeur that Lake Geneva does not have. "
Another famous Russian traveler, a scientist and researcher of Central Asia, Nikolai Mikhailovich Przhevalsky, was in love with this land and asked to be buried on the lake. When he first saw the beauty of Kyrgyzstan, he said: "This is the same Switzerland, only better." After Przhevalsky’s death, a city located near Lake Issyk-Kul, in which the traveler’s grave is still located, was named after him. After the collapse of the USSR, Przhevalsk was renamed the city of Karakol, but it has a museum of the great traveler and discoverer.
It is known for certain that in ancient times the Great Silk Road passed along the coastal zone of Issyk-Kul, along which foreign merchants carried luxurious fabrics, jewelry, spices, weapons and jewelry. On the shore of the lake was a large trading city where travelers could exchange and purchase goods, rest and have a bite to eat, and also enjoy the beauties of a marvelous land. In the vicinity of Issyk-Kul, many objects were found that testify to the presence of the remains of ancient cultures and civilizations: Scythian, Buddhist, ancient Christian.
Nature and wildlife
It is impossible not to mention the unique flora and fauna of the lake. At a relatively close distance from each other, various types of vegetation grow here - alpine meadows are adjacent to coniferous and deciduous forests and shrubs. The most noteworthy representatives of the local coastal flora are sea buckthorn, which tourists and vacationers can easily pluck. Sea buckthorn bushes, sometimes called "northern pineapple" for their sweet and sour taste and distinctive aroma, are literally strewn with the shores of the lake. The healing properties of sea buckthorn berries and leaves are widely used as an effective tool for healing external wounds and internal ulcers, treating skin diseases, and stimulating potency in men. In the old days, in the Russian Empire, sea buckthorn in the most exquisite culinary forms was served almost daily to the tsar's table. Therefore, it is not surprising that tourists and local residents are happy to eat the fruits of this glorious plant in the form of jam, compotes or sea buckthorn oil.
Woody vegetation is represented mainly by forests of Schrenka spruce (Tien Shan spruce) and blue spruce. Spruce forests are distributed mainly on the northern slopes of the mountains bordering Lake Issyk Kul. The mountain ranges are also rich in thickets of wild rose, barberry, currant, mountain ash, juniper, and the shores of the lake are rich in apple, pear, apricot and cherry trees.
The fauna of the Issyk-Kul region is as rich and diverse as the flora. Black-throated loon, bittern, black stork, mallard, gray duck, common crane, common gull, blue kingfisher nest in the coastal waters of the lake and the flowing rivers. Gray heron, swans and gray goose are here on wintering and during flights. And in the lake itself there are many species of fish: osman, marinka, common carp, trout, tench, bream, chebak and chebachek. The latter are the favorite objects of traditional amateur fishing among residents of Issyk-Kul.
Healing procedures
So many healing properties of water, as in Issyk-Kul, not every lake in the world boasts.
In the coastal zone of the lake there are a myriad of boarding houses and sanatoriums in which vacationers and tourists receive medical procedures. Pure mountain-sea air is ideal for people with respiratory diseases, and swimming in brackish lake water has a unique effect on the human body. Mineral water obtained from an underground mountain spring has a temperature of 42-52 degrees and is widely used in radon baths, underwater showers with massage and dental irrigation. In the shallow waters of Issyk Kul, about 10 therapeutic mud deposits were discovered (with reserves of about 2 million tons), not inferior in terms of chemical composition and physical properties to the famous mud of the Black Sea resorts.
On the south coast, 500 meters from Issyk-Kul there is a small Salt Lake, or as it is also called by the people "Dead". We opened it recently, in 2001. People nicknamed him so because the fish do not live in him and other animals are not found because of the high content of salts. This lake in its medicinal qualities and salt composition is not inferior to the famous Dead Sea, located on the territories of two countries - Jordan and Israel. The coast of the Kyrgyz Salt Lake is surrounded by therapeutic mud, which is used to treat skin diseases, diseases of the joints and respiratory tract. Now this place has become the national treasure of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan, thousands of tourists come here every year to swim.
Today, as in the days of the Soviet Union, when the lake was rightly considered an all-Union health resort, Issyk-Kul is a favorite vacation spot for many tourists. Every summer, thousands of vacationers from the former Soviet republics: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and others come to Issyk Kul to take sun baths and water treatments. Anyone who at least once bathed in the waters of this warm, slightly brackish lake will return here again, because it is impossible to forget Lake Issyk-Kul!
