Lake Issyk-Kul

Lake Issyk-Kul Latest News

Underwater archaeologists recently unveiled a hidden city in Lake Issyk-Kul, revealing a lost civilization from seven hundred years ago.

About Lake Issyk-Kul

• It is located in northeastern Kyrgyzstan. 
• Surrounding the lake are the snowcapped Tian Shan mountains (the Heaven’s mountains).  
• It was formed roughly 25 million years ago and has an endorheic basin, meaning it has no outflow to other bodies of water like rivers or oceans. 
• The water in the lake is blue and brackish. 
• It is located at an altitude of 1600 meters. It is after Lake Titicaca in South America, the world’s second-largest high mountain lake.
• The lake has a length of 182 km, a width up to 61 km, and a surface area of 6,280 sq.km.
• It is the second-largest saline lake in the world after the Caspian Sea.  It is also the largest lake in Kyrgyzstan.
• It reaches a depth of 668 metres and averages some 280 metres deep. It ranks seventh in the list of the deepest lakes in the world.  
• Owing to its depth, low salinity, and warm springs, it does not freeze, even in winter.   Issyk-Kul translates as “hot lake”. 
• From the lakeshore, all major landscape types, from subtropical to tundra, occur in close succession. 
• In 1976, it was included on the Ramsar list as a wetland of international importance.

Source: TOI

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