Travel deep dive
Issyk-Kul, the Lake Between the Ranges, and Karakol
Issyk-Kul fills a basin in the north-east of Kyrgyzstan, a lake about 180 kilometres long at some 1,600 metres, ringed by the snowy ranges of the Tian Shan, and its slightly salty water never freezes. It is the country's summer coast and its way into the high Tian Shan, whose valleys rise straight from the eastern shore. A loop around the lake is the classic first journey in the country.
Updated 2026-10-09
Cholpon-Ata and the northern shore
The northern shore is the lake's holiday coast, with sandy beaches and resorts busy in July and August, when the water is warmest. At Cholpon-Ata, a field of boulders above the town keeps hundreds of rock carvings, ibex, deer and hunters among them, from the Bronze Age onwards, with the lake and the mountains of the far shore behind them.
Karakol
Karakol, at the eastern end of the lake, is a town of low houses and wide, tree-lined streets laid out in the nineteenth century. Its two landmarks are a wooden Orthodox cathedral, the Holy Trinity, and the Dungan mosque, built by the Chinese Muslim community of the town in timber, without nails, with eaves and a pagoda-like minaret painted in bright colours. On Sunday mornings the animal market on the edge of town gathers horses, sheep and cattle and the herders who trade them, and near the lake shore stands the memorial and grave of the explorer Przhevalsky.
The valleys and treks above Karakol
South of Karakol, valleys of spruce forest and alpine meadows climb into the Terskey Ala-Too range. The Karakol valley, the hot springs of Altyn-Arashan and the turquoise lake of Ala-Kul, high under the peaks, are joined by a classic trek of a few days, and guesthouses and yurt camps line the easier valleys; the high passes call for a slow climb. Further east, the great glaciers of the central Tian Shan rise to Khan Tengri and Jengish Chokusu, peaks above 7,000 metres reached by expeditions.
The southern shore
The southern shore is quieter, with villages, apricot orchards and few resorts. Inland from it, the red sandstone of Jeti-Oguz rises in a line of cliffs known as the Seven Bulls, and the Skazka canyon, the canyon of fairy tales, is a maze of eroded red and orange ridges running down to the lake.
Visiting and the season
A loop around the lake from Bishkek takes three or four days at an easy pace, with the treks above Karakol adding several more. Summer, from about June to September, is the season for the beaches and the mountains; the high trails open fully from July. In winter, the slopes near Karakol draw skiers, and the lake shore is quiet.