Ala-Kul — lake
Ondřej Žváček · CC BY 2.5

Ala-Kul

  • Elevation3,560 m
  • 2 min read
  • 42.318° N 78.536° E

Interesting facts

  • The first known visitor was the Russian traveller Putimtsov in 1811, who described rocks of many colours and furious winds around the lake.
  • About thirty years after that first visit, the naturalist Alexander von Schrenk explored the lake and the mountains around it.
  • Although the name is read as 'variegated lake', it may in fact be borrowed from the Ala-Too mountains rather than from the lake's colours.
  • The lake is more than 70 metres deep and has no islands.
  • The lake is glacial in origin; its glacier has retreated to the head of the valley but is still visible from the shore and still feeds it.
  • The lake sits in the headwaters of the Kurgaktor, a right-bank tributary of the Karakol River.

Why it is worth it

Ala-Köl, whose Kyrgyz name means something like "the variegated lake", lies high on the northern slope of the Terskey Ala-Too range above Karakol, at about 3,530 metres. It fills a narrow trough on the right side of the Karakol valley, roughly 2.8 kilometres long and 600 to 700 metres wide, held in by a natural dam of rock; its water seeps out beneath that barrier rather than over it and eventually reaches the Karakol River. A glacier stream feeds it from above, and the meltwater gives the lake the milky turquoise colour that turns almost luminous in sunlight and steel grey when cloud comes down over the ridges.

Getting to the lake is part of its meaning. Ala-Köl is the centrepiece of one of Kyrgyzstan's best-known mountain treks, usually walked over two or three days. From the Karakol valley a path climbs through forest to a clearing at around 2,800 metres, a common first night's camp, then rises steeply over the last few kilometres to the lake shore. The walk along the lake leads up to the Ala-Köl pass, at about 3,860 metres by most measurements, where the whole length of the lake lies below and the snow peaks of the Terskey Ala-Too stand across the valley.

Beyond the pass the trail drops into the Keldike valley and on towards Altyn-Arashan, so walkers see a wide cross-section of the range in a short time: forest, alpine meadow, scree, glacier ice and the long blue strip of water in its stone cradle. The area lies within the Karakol national park, and the scale of the scenery is the reason to come.

Getting there

The starting point is Karakol, about 23 km from the lake by straight line, a town at the eastern end of Lake Issyk-Kul some 325 km by road from Bishkek. Karakol International Airport (IKG), about 24 km from the lake, has limited domestic flights from Bishkek; most travellers fly into Bishkek and continue by road. From Karakol a taxi or minibus runs to the entrance of the Karakol valley, from where the lake is reached only on foot, usually with a night at the forest camp on the way up. The trek reaches high altitude quickly and is best done in the summer months.

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Kyrgyzstan 7The Most Beautiful Lakes in Kyrgyzstan 5The Most Beautiful Lakes 105The Most Beautiful Water Wonders 429

From the encyclopaedia

Ala-Köl is a rock-dammed lake on the northern slope of the Terskey Alatau mountain range in the Ak-Suu District of the Issyk-Kul Region in Kyrgyzstan. The lake is located in a narrow gorge on the right side of the Karakol Valley. The lake basin lies at an elevation of 3,532 m (11,588 ft) above sea level. A small stream flowing from a glacier feeds the lake. The lake is 2.8 km (1.7 mi) long and 600–700 m (2,000–2,300 ft) wide. Its area is 1.5 km2 (0.58 sq mi). It belongs to the type of dammed lakes. Water from the lake seeps out under the natural dam and flows into the Karakol River.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

42.31750, 78.53560per Wikidata