Chapter 2. Lakes of kyrgyzstan

    In total, there are almost 2000 lakes in the Kyrgyz Republic, with a combined area of 6836 sq km. Most of them are small mountain lakes, located at altitudes between 2500 and 4000 meters above sea level and were formed as a result of glaciations. Only 16 of the lakes have a surface area of over 1 sq. km. (Table 1)

    In Kyrgyz, the word for lake is “kul” – as in Issyk-Kul, Son-Kul and Chatyr-Kul.

The largest lakes of Kyrgyzstan.

Table 1.

 

2.1 Lakes of a tectonic origin

Issyk-Kul Lake.

    Lake Issyk Kul has a length of 182 , a width of up to 60 kilometers , and covers an area of 6,236 square kilometers. This makes it the second largest mountain lake in the world behind Lake Titicaca in South America. Located at an altitude of 1,607 meters,it reaches 668 meters in depth.

    About 118 rivers and streams flow into the lake; the largest are the Djyrgalan and Tyup. It is fed by springs, including many hot springs, and snow melt-off. The lake has no current outlet, but some hydrologists hypothesize that, deep underground, lake water filters into the Chu River. The bottom of the lake contains the mineralmonohydrocalcite: one of the few known lacustrine deposits.

    The lake's southern shore is dominated by the ruggedly beautiful Teskey Ala-Too Range of the Tian-Shan mountains. The Kyngey Ala-Too of the Tian Shan runs parallel to the north shore.

The lake water has salinity of approx. 0.6%—compare to 3.5% salinity of typical seawater—and its level drops by approximately 5 cm per year.

    Administratively, the lake and the adjacent land are within Issyk-Kul Province of Kyrgyzstan.

    The lake has been held in high regard by the Kyrgyz – it is known as the “pearl of the Tian- Shan” – and in 2004, the government declared the lake as the “property of the nation”.  One source even suggests that, at one time, it was even forbidden to swim in the lake.   
    The area relishes in some 2900 hours of sunshine a year.  Because of the effect of the mountain ranges North and South, it does not suffer from extreme Continental climatic conditions.  Summer temperatures are usually around 25-28 degrees, but as the lake lies at an altitude of some 1606m, it can get quite chilly, especially at night.  Winter temperatures can be around –5 degrees. (Table 1)

Table 1.

 

    Due to its size it sometimes appears like an inland sea, and it has a fair number of

beaches.  Most of these are on the Northern shore and have long acted as a magnet for tourists.  There are a large number of hotels, sanatoria, guesthouses and home stays at various points around the lake, many of which can make arrangements for services to the neighboring mountains. Some of the sanatoria have hydrothermal springs and offer mud baths.  
    The tourist season usually runs from June until September – but the peak season is from about 25 th July until 25 th August – and it may be difficult to find places and prices are at a premium.  A number of the sanatoria, hotels, guesthouses and home stays around the lake operate all year round – although some are open only during the summer season.  
The area was basically unknown to the Western world until Russian “explorers” like Tianshansky Semeyenov ventured into the mountains nearby.  There was greater contact with the East, however, and the Chinese traveler Jan Chan Tzan reached the lake in about 128 BC as part of a 6-year journey of exploration (1138-126BC).  The first written account of the lake comes from another Chinese traveler, Suan Zsan, when describing his 16-year journey of exploration.  The first written example of the use of the name, Issyk-Kul, dates from an anonymous work – “The boundaries of the world from East to West” – written in Tajik in 982 AD.  It also accurately states the size of the lake.

History

    Lake Issyk-Kul was a stopover on the Silk Road, a land route for travelers from the Far East to Europe. Many historians believe that the lake was the point of origin for the Black Death that plagued Europe and Asia during the early and mid-14th century. The lake's status as a byway for travelers allowed the plague to spread across these continents via medieval merchants who unknowingly carried infested vermin along with them. A 14th century Armenian monastery was found on the northeastern shores of the lake by retracing the steps of a medieval map used by Venetian merchants on the Silk Road.

    The lake level was some 8 meters (26 ft) lower in medieval times. Divers have found the remains of submerged settlements in shallow areas around the lake. In December 2007, a report was released by a team of Kyrgyz historians, led by Vladimir Ploskikh, vice president of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, that archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2500-year-old advanced civilization at the bottom of the Lake. The data and artifacts obtained suggest that the ancient city was a metropolis in its time. The discovery consisted of formidable walls, some stretching for 500 meters (1,600 ft) as well as traces of a large city with an area of several square kilometers. Other findings included Scythian burial mounds eroded over the centuries by waves, as well as numerous well-preserved artifacts, including bronze battleaxes, arrowheads, self-sharpening daggers, objects discarded by smiths, casting molds, and a faceted gold bar that was a monetary unit of the time.

    Articles identified as the world's oldest extant coins were also found underwater with gold wire rings used as small change and a large hexahedral gold piece. Also found was a bronze cauldron with a level of craftsmanship that is today achieved by using an inert gas environment. In 1916 the monastery at Issyk-Kul was attacked by Kyrgyz rebels, seven monks were killed.

Fish

    The lake contains highly endemic fish biodiversity, and some of the species, including four endemics, are seriously endangered. In recent years catches of all species of fish have declined markedly, due to a combination of over-fishing, heavy predation by two of the introduced species, and the cessation of lake restocking with juvenile fish from hatcheries. At least four commercially targeted endemic fish species are sufficiently threatened to be included in the Red Book of the Kyrgyz Republic: Schmidt's Dace(Leuciscus schmidti), Issyk-Kul Dace , Marinka (Schizothorax issyk-kuli), and Sheer or Naked Osman. Seven other endemic species are almost certainly threatened as by-catch or are indirectly impacted by fishing activity and changes to the structure and balance of the lake's fish population.

    Sevan trout, a fish endemic to Lake Sevan in Armenia, was introduced into Issyk-Kul in the 1970s. While this fish is an endangered species in its "home" lake, it has a much better chance to survive in Lake Issyk-Kul where it has ravaged the indigenous species.

Towns and some villages around the lake, listed clockwise from the lake's western tip:

• Balykchy (the railhead at the western end of the lake)
• Koshkol'
• Tamchy
• Cholpon-Ata (the capital of the north shore)
• Karakol (the provincial capital near the eastern end of the lake)
• Tyup
• Barskon

Son-Kul Lake.

    Son Kul is a mountain lake in the Central Tian-Shan range, virtually in the centre of Kyrgyzstan. One translation of the name is “The Last Lake”. 

    At an altitude of 3016m a.s.l.; 29km long and 18km wide and a maximum depth of 13.2m - it is Kyrgyzstan’s second largest lake. The average temperature is about -3.5°C, and in summer it is about 11°C .  Winter temperatures can fall as low as -20°C , and there are something like 200 days of snow. In winter is often impossible to reach the plateau. Unlike Issyk -Kul it does freeze over in the winter – between September and June. It is situated on a treeless, high mountain plateau, and is surrounded by lush mountain meadows (jailoo). As such it is used by the shepherds of the Kochkor, Naryn and At-Bashi regions for summer pastures for their flocks. In fact, there is evidence that it has been used for pasture from very ancient times. (There are some strange arrangements of ‘standing stones' and stone circles – nothing on the scale of Stonehenge – but they provide an interesting stimulation to speculation about how they got there and what was their purpose). 

    The shepherds drive the livestock (sheep and/or horses) up into the mountains, establish a camp where they will live for the summer months – setting up their yurts. 

Yurts, round felt tents over a wooden frame are the typical nomadic dwelling found throughout Central Asia, you will see several scattered throughout the plain. Many shepherd will be happy to welcome tourists and serve a cup of Kumyz – fermented mare's milk - and even to let visitors sleep overnight, (usually on mats on the floor), but it may be best to make arrangements beforehand. There are several camps (or ‘Yurt Inns') established during the summer months to accommodate tourists … with kitchens, toilets and washing facilities. It is also possible to arrange horse riding and trekking lasting anything from an hour to a day.

    There are four roads up from the valleys. One from Sary-Bulak in the North East; a second passing through a dramatic sequence of over thirty serpentine, hairpin bends towards Naryn in the South East (if you have time you can take a detour to a beautiful waterfall surrounded by woods); the third goes to Ak-Tal in the South West and the fourth goes past the coal mines of Kara Keche towards Chaek in the North West.

In the winter, however – and often in spring and autumn months too – these roads are closed by snow. 

    It is possible for the visitor to feel that they are experiencing “pristine nature”. Even though there are no trees on the plain … there is abundance of herbs (such as chamomile, sagebrush, lichen, friar's cap and golden root) – many of which are prized for the medicinal qualities, and flowers are plentiful in the spring (especially Edelweiss). There are some 66 different species of waterfowl that make their homes on the shores of the lake or in the surrounding area – about two thirds of all the varieties found throughout Kyrgyzstan. Amongst the ones that a luck tourist might see are:  several different species of gulls and ducks; cranes, storks, mergansers, bald-coots, plovers, falcons, golden eagles, shags and the very rare Indian mountain goose. Animals that you might be luck enough to see on the plain include deer, foxes, marmots, Marco Polo Sheep, lynx, leopards and wolves. There were no fish in the lake until 1959 – when fish were specially introduced into the lake and now, fish from the lake could be found on sale in the markets of Naryn and Kochkor.

Chatyr-Kul Lake.

    Chatyr-Kul (also Chatyr Köl, Chatyrkol) is an endorheic alpine lake in the Tian-Shan mountains in At-Bashi District of Naryn Province, Kyrgyzstan; it lies in the lower part of Chatyr-Kul Depression near the Torugart Pass border crossing into China. The name of the lake means “Celestial Lake” in Kyrgyz. The lake and 2 km buffer zone around it is part of the Karatal-Japyryk State Nature Reserve. The lake is a Ramsar site of globally significant biodiversity (Ramsar Site RDB Code 2KG002).

    The water of Chatyr Kul Lake is yellowish-green with water transparency of up to 4 metres (13 ft). The mineralization of the lake ranges from 0.5 to 1.0 milligrams per liter (chloride, hydrocarbonate, sodium and magnesium type of mineralization). Thesalinity of the lake is 2 ppt. Mineral sources in the south part of the lake have mineralization of from 5 to 7 grams (0.18 to 0.25 oz) per liter and pH = 5,8-6,0. Flow rate is 1,866 m³ (65,900 cu ft) in winter and 3,629 cubic meters (128,200 cu ft) during summer.