Kolsay Lakes
Interesting facts
- The lakes are thought to date from the late 19th century, when landslides set off by the 1887 Verny earthquake dammed the gorge.
- In Kazakh, Kolsay is usually explained as "lake in a gorge", a fitting name for a chain strung along a single mountain valley.
- Surveys of the national park have recorded some 704 plant species, about 50 kinds of mammals and nearly 200 bird species.
- Rare mammals of the park include the snow leopard, the Turkestan lynx, the Tian Shan argali and the Tian Shan brown bear.
- Above the upper lake the Sary-Bulak pass climbs to about 3,278 metres on the watershed with Kyrgyzstan.
- In Soviet times a tourist route about 25 km long ran up the valley, a trip of three days on foot or one on horseback.
Why it is worth it
Three lakes climb one forested gorge on the northern flank of the Tian Shan, each higher, colder and stiller than the one below. The Kolsay chain lies where the Kungey Alatau joins the Trans-Ili Alatau, in the Kegen District of southeastern Kazakhstan, barely ten kilometres short of the Kyrgyz frontier. Dark Tian Shan spruce runs straight down to the shoreline, and Kazakhs have long called the lakes the pearls of the northern Tian Shan.
All three are natural reservoirs, impounded where landslides blocked the Kolsay River. The lowest sits at about 1,818 metres; it is roughly a kilometre long and 400 metres wide, and it is the only one a road reaches. Around five kilometres further up the valley lies the middle lake, Mynzholky, a name usually translated as "a thousand years", at about 2,252 metres. It is the largest of the three and the one most often singled out for its beauty. Another six kilometres higher, near 2,850 metres, the upper lake lies among the last spruce stands and alpine meadows below the Sary-Bulak pass on the Kyrgyz border. Rainbow trout live in the cold, clear water.
Since 2007 the valley has been the heart of Kolsay Lakes National Park, a protected area of some 1,600 square kilometres, most of it under strict protection. In 2021 UNESCO added the park to its World Network of Biosphere Reserves. The park also takes in Lake Kaindy, eleven kilometres to the east, which formed in 1911 when an earthquake set off a landslide that dammed a gorge; the trunks of the drowned spruces still rise upright from its water.
Getting there
The lakes are in the Kegen District of Almaty Region. The village of Saty is the nearest settlement and the usual base for both Kolsay and Kaindy; the town of Shelek lies about 70 km to the north. The Kyrgyz town of Karakol is only about 50 km away in a straight line, but the main ridge of the Kungey Alatau and the state border lie in between, so the lakes are approached from the Kazakh side. Almaty International Airport (ALA) is about 112 km away in a straight line; the road from Almaty runs east and then south into the mountains and is considerably longer.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Lake Kaindy 13.2 km · lake
On these lists
42.95250, 78.31000per Wikidata