Lake Issyk is located at an altitude of 1714 meters in Issyk gorge, 40 km from the city of Almaty.
According to research, Issyk was formed as a result of a rock fall and the creation of a natural dam of 300 meters’ height.
During the Soviet era a camp site, a park with a hotel and a restaurant functioned on the shore of the lake. The lake was a resting place for thousands of Almaty residents and guests of the southern capital of Kazakhstan. But in 1963, a tragedy occurred: a mudflow destroyed a dam in the western part of the lake, emptying the reservoir and taking about a thousand lives. The Issyk River changed its course after the mudflow.
Only in the early 1990s, the dam was rebuilt, and the volume of the lake returned by 75%.
Currently, lake Issyk is again one of the most popular tourist areas of the Almaty region.
