LAKE ISSYK

Not far from Almaty there is a reservoir that has its own unusual history. We are talking about Issyk Lake. Locals have long called this lake Green. The first mention of the existence of a wonderful reservoir refers to one of the European travelers, it was back in 1856.

Lake Issyk in Almaty is located on the southwestern side of the district in the Ile-Alatau National Park. It is a pit with an ancient landslide-tectonic origin. It is believed that Issyk Lake in Almaty appeared about ten thousand years ago. This circumstance happened due to the collapse of the river, into which one of the fragments fell from the cliff. Thus, a dam appeared, which had a height of about three hundred meters. This dam was the reason for the further formation of this reservoir.

Features
The maximum depth is eighty meters, the height above sea level is about 1.8 kilometers, it has about the same length and width of half a kilometer.

Fact
A little more than fifty years ago, a mudflow severely damaged the reservoir. A stream of mud coming down from the mountain crushed that dam on its way and simply destroyed it. After five hours, the lake was almost gone. The cataclysm greatly changed the environment, there were also human casualties.

After this event, many years had to be spent to restore the natural beauty and the lake. About twenty years ago, we managed to achieve some success and re-erect the dam. The volume of water is gradually replenished, however, even today it has been possible to restore about half.