Sary-chelek lake

Sary-Chelek lake

Sary-Chelek is a mountain lake, the largest in the Western Tien Shan and is the basis of the eponymous reserve of 5 lakes. Sary-Chelek is located in the western part of the Jalal-Abad region, in the foothills of the Chatkal Range, at an altitude of 1940 meters.

Lake Sary-Chelek is of the dam type. It was formed about 10,000 years ago after a powerful earthquake that blocked the valley with the river flowing through it. The area of ​​the lake is approximately 50 square kilometers, and it stretches for 7.5 kilometers in length. The first thing that catches your eye in Sary-Chelek is the amazing purity of the water. This is a rarity for the Tien Shan lakes - usually in mountain lakes the water is opaque due to the large amount of mineral impurities. Sary-Chelek is an exception. Sary-Chelek is the second deepest lake in Kyrgyzstan and the third in Central Asia. Its depth in some places reaches 234 meters, and because of this, even in summer the lake does not warm up more than 20 degrees, and in winter it barely has time to cool down to 0.

The shores of Sary-Chelek are densely covered with fir and spruce forests that grow literally from the water's edge to the very tops of the mountains surrounding the lake. From the southern shore of the lake begins the territory of the Sary-Chelek Biosphere Reserve, which was created to preserve the unique natural diversity of this region. Within the reserve there are 4 more lakes, in addition to Sary-Chelek itself, as well as large forest lands consisting of walnut and fruit trees. The largest of the other lakes in this area are the Iri-Kel and Kyla-Kel lakes, which are inferior in size to Sary-Chelek, but not at all inferior in beauty. Due to the not so great depth as in Sary-Chelek itself, at the bottom of these lakes you can clearly see the trunks of fallen trees and see flocks of fearless fish.