Ventura Tours Central Asia Issyk Kul in pictures
A photo album of Kyrgyzstan's best-known lake, following a route around it: Cholpon Ata and the northern shore, Grigoriev gorge, Karakol, Jeti Oguz and Kok Jayik, Skazka canyon and the southern shore, and the Chon Kemin valley on the way back.
Cholpon Ata and the northern shore
The album opens on the northern coast at Cholpon Ata, where the water is a bright, almost unreal blue. Boats take visitors out onto the lake, and the Rukh Ordo spiritual centre stands by the shore.
Cholpon Ata is the main town on the northern shore of the lake.
Grigoriev gorge
A short turn off the northern shore leads into Grigoriev gorge, one of the most photographed corners of the Issyk Kul region. The road climbs to a panoramic viewpoint above the valley.
Further on, a small lake mirrors the surrounding slopes. Horses graze across the green summer landscape, and the gorge keeps its cool even in the middle of a hot day.
The gorge opens onto the lake near the northern coast.
Karakol town
Karakol stands at the point where the northern and southern routes around the lake meet, and it is one of the usual stops on the way. The album shows two of its landmarks: the Russian Orthodox church and the Dungan mosque.
Jeti Oguz and Kok Jayik
On the southern shore the landscape changes. At Jeti Oguz — 'Seven Bulls' — walls of red rock rise over the valley, and horses stand on the panoramic viewpoint above them.
Kok Jayik, the valley of flowers, is the next stop. You reach it on horseback or on foot from the shore; at the top there are waterfalls, summer pastures with yurts, and kebab cooked over an open fire.
Skazka canyon and the southern shore
Skazka, the Fairy Tale canyon, is a compact group of eroded red formations above the southern shore. Wind and rain have carved walls, towers and ridges out of the rock.
Further west, along the Bokonbaevo stretch, the album opens onto the full width of the lake and the open water of the south shore.
The canyon is reached from the road that runs along the southern coast.
Chon Kemin valley on the way back
The album closes on the road back to Bishkek, in the Chon Kemin valley. The route up to the viewpoint is done on horseback, and from the top the valley opens up in full; afterwards lunch is served at a guesthouse in Kemin.
The valley lies on the way back from the lake towards Bishkek.
A yurt, the traditional home of the Kyrgyz
The round felt dwelling of the nomads is still part of life in Kyrgyzstan: it shelters shepherds on the summer pastures, appears in city courtyards for holidays and welcomes travellers at yurt camps. Here is how a Kyrgyz yurt is built, what its parts are called, and the numbers behind it.
Five reasons to visit Kyrgyzstan
Mountains and lakes in four seasons, nomadic traditions you can join, horse games and falconry, the places travellers ask about first, and the question of when to come: what actually draws people to Kyrgyzstan.
Five activities to do around Bishkek
Ala Archa on foot, horse riding in Chunkurchak or Chon Kemin, a cultural walk through the capital, paragliding above the city and rafting on the Chu river: five ways to fill a day, or a day trip, from Bishkek.
The Silk Road beyond monuments
Why markets, workshops and ordinary streets matter as much as the famous tiled facades.