Lake Issyk-Kul and Lake Tahoe in California have a lot in common. They are both very blue, beautiful deep mountain lakes and they both are vacation destinations freom the city, Kake Issyk Kul is …
Issyk-Kul Lake Issyk-Kul and Lake Tahoe in California have a lot in common. They are both very blue, beautiful deep mountain lakes and they both are vacation destinations freom the city, Kake Issyk Kul is about a three hour drive from Bishkek. Both have nearby fanatastically wonderful mountains, just as spectacular as Yosemite and Soquioa National Parks are from Lake Tahoe (and closer too) Both Lake Tahoe and Lake Issykl are Extra Blue because they are Extra Deep and Extra Clear Lake Issyk was the site of the World Nomad Games in September 2018 and is an excellent jumping off place for silk road tours It an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan Mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. Endorheic means the lake has no out flow and like the Great Salt Lake in Utah, lake Issyk is saline. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. Issyk-Kul means “warm lake” in the Kyrgyz language; although it is surrounded by snow-capped peaks, it never freezes. During the Soviet era, the lake became a popular vacation resort, with numerous sanatoria, boarding houses and vacation homes along its northern shore, many concentrated in and around the town of Cholpon-Ata. These fell on hard times after the break-up of the USSR, but now hotel complexes are being refurbished and simple private bed-and-breakfast rentals are being established for a new generation of health and leisure visitors. Issyk Kul Region on the Silk Road Barskoon Barskoon on the southern shore of Lake Issyk Kul only has a population of a few thousand today, but its prominent location made it an important trading post in the Middle Ages. A route of the ancient Silk Road passed through here, passing over the 4,284 m (14,055 ft) Bedel Pass into China. The ruins of an ancient caravanserai in Barskoon, provide testament to the times when caravan routes dispersed from here into China in the East and India in the South. After the end of the Mongol Empire and the gradual decline of the Silk Road after the 1400s, the town began to lose prominence. The 11th century scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari (also known as Barskhani) was a native of this area. Mahmud al-Kashgari is best known as the author of the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, the first comparative dictionary of the Turkic languages, which he wrote whilst living in Baghdad in 1072-1074. Mahmud al-Kashgari’s world map, with Barskoon at the center Kashgari’s tomb is in Upal, a small town in present-day Xinjiang southwest of Kashgar on the Karakoram Highway to Pakistan. Barskoon is also known as the birthplace of Abu Mansur Sabuktigin. Born there in 942, he was later sold as a slave to Alp-Tegin, the commander-in-chief of the Samanid rulers of Bukhara. Sabuktigin became one of the most prominent generals of 10th-century Central Asia, married Alptigin’s daughter, and became the founder of the Ghaznavid dynasty, which ruled large parts of Iran, Afghanistan and northwestern India until 1186. Lake Issyk Kul on the Silk Road Issyk-Kul Lake was a stopover on the Silk Road, a land route for travelers from the Far East to Europe. The Great Chinese Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller Xuanzang has passed this lake and recorded the details in the classic Chinese text Great Tang Records on the Western Regions in the 7th century. The Lake was once owned by the Qing Dynasty of China and was ceded to Russia including the surrounding territory after the Treaty of Tarbagatai. 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. In pre-Islamic legend, the king of the Ossounes had donkey’s ears. He would hide them, and order each of his barbers killed to hide his secret. One barber yelled the secret into a well, but he did not cover the well afterwards. As a result, the well water rose and flooded the kingdom. The kingdom is today under the waters of Issyk-Kul. According to the legend, this is how the lake was formed. Other legends say that four drowned cities lie at the bottom of the lake. Substantial archaeological finds indicating the presence of an advanced civilization in ancient times have been made in shallow waters of the lak In December 2007, a team of Kyrgyz historians and archaeologists announced that they 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 metres (1,600 ft) and traces of a large city with an area of several square kilometers. Other findings included Scythian burial mounds eroded over the centuries by waves, and numerous well-preserved artifacts, including bronze battleaxes, arrowheads, self-sharpe...