Tourist Attractions

Bishkek, Osh, Issyk Kul Lake, Karakol, Tash Rabat, Turgat pass, Irkeshtam pass

 

Bishkek
Bishkek is the capital of Kyrgyzstan. It is a young city that is just 130 years old. Kyrgyz people used to be nomads for thousands years and they did not have any cities. They lived in collapsible dwellings yurts and were traveling from one place to another.

 

In 1860 year there was a fortress built by Uzbek people. Nomads did not want to pay them and tried to capture the fortress many times. They managed to do it only in 1862 with a help of Russian solders. They had an agreement to share the valley with Russians in case of victory. Step by step some Kyrgyz started to live nearby the fortress with Russians in houses made of clay.

 

The majority of people were still nomads and they did not want to live in the valley all year round. Only in 1878 year Bishkek fortress and surrounded village was named as Bishkek city. And from that time it became the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

 

Nowadays it is a modern city with paved roads, high buildings and many places to visit. There are many museums, art galleries, restaurants and cinemas.

 

The city is situated not far from the main international airport Manas. It takes just 40 minutes drive to reach the city.

 

Osh

Is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". The city is 3,000 years old. It is notorious in the Russian-speaking world for the bloody interethnic Osh riots of 1990.

Osh has served as the administrative center of Osh Province since 1939. The city has an ethnically mixed population of about 220,000 (in 2003), comprising Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Russians, Tajiks, and other smaller ethnic groups.

Osh is a lively place, with the largest and most crowded outdoor market in all of Central Asia. The city's industrial base, established during the Soviet period, largely collapsed after the break-up of the Soviet Union and has started to revive only gradually. The proximity of the Uzbek border, which artificially cuts through historically linked territories and settlements, deprives Osh of much of its former hinterland and presents a serious obstacle to trade and economic development. Daily flights link Osh - and hence the southern part of Kyrgyzstan - to Bishkek and the north, and the recent upgrading of the long and arduous road through the mountains to Bishkek has greatly improved communications.

The city has several monuments, among them one to the southern Kyrgyz "queen" Kurmanjan Datka and one of the few remaining statues of Lenin. A Russian Orthodox church can also be found (reopened after the demise of the Soviet Union), as well as the biggest mosque in the country (situated beside the bazaar) and the Rabat Abdul Khan Mosque (from the 16th century). The onlyWorld Heritage Site in the country, the Sulayman Mountain, offers a splendid view over Osh and its environs and a cave in the mountain is the site of a museum containing a collection of archaeological, geological and historical finds and information about local flora and fauna.

 

Issyk Kul Lake

Issyk-Kul means "hot lake" in Kyrgyz and confirms its name by not freezing in winter. It sits 1609m above the sea level and has an area of 6206 square km (179 km long and 60 km wide), making it the second largest alpine lake in the world after Lake Titicaca in South America. About 134 rivers flow into the lake. No river flow out of Issyk-Kul so the lake accumulates all mineral substances carried here by the rivers and rains. The water is very light and transparent, in clear weather one can see the lake's bottom. Since ancient times, Issyk-Kul has been famous for its curative mineralised water, hot springs and medicinal mud used for treating many diseases.

The lake is encircled with high mountains. The powerful ranges of the Kungei Ala-Too and Terskei Ala-Too round the lake from the South and North and form a hallow 2-3.5 km deep, which extends for 240 km west to east. This offers excellent opportunities for developing mountain tourism, mountaineering, and mountain skiing.

Thanks to the mixture of mountainous and marine climate it is not extremely hot at the lake in summer and nights are always cool. The average monthly temperature is 20C (F) and in January it's not less than -5C (F). During the summer season, between June and September, the average waster temperature is +22-24C (F). The area of Lake Issyk-Kul keeps a lot of secrets. At present at the bottom of the lake archaeologists have discovered the ruins of an ancient city, Chigu, which sank many centuries ago. It was a capital of the Usuni State since the 2nd century BC, and the trade centre of the Tian Shan on the Great Silk Road.
Attractions in the lake region include the Altyn Arashan hot spring development, set in a 3000m (9840ft) high alpine valley; the immense, silent summer pasture of the Karkara valley; the extraordinary red sandstone cliffs of the Jeti-Oghuz canyon; and the excellent hiking trails into the Terskey Alatau, south of Karakol. The best time to visit is September, though trekking in the mountains is best between July and August.

 

Karakol

Karakol is one of Kyrgyzstan's major tourist destinations, serving as a good starting point for the excellent hiking, trekking, skiing and mountaineering in the high central Tian Shan to the south and east.

The town itself boasts a number of places that would be of interest to tourists, such as a very pretty wooden mosque built by Chinese artisans for the local Dungans between 1907 and 1910 entirely without metal nails and a similarly appealing wooden Russian Orthodox church, the Holy Trinity Cathedral, completed in 1895, used as an officer's club during Soviet times, but now restored and in use again. The Regional Museum, following some sponsorship from the nearby Canadian gold mining concern, has exhibits on the Issyk-Kul petroglyphs, Scythianbronze artifacts, and a short history of the geology and mineral exploitation in the region. There also is a small section of Russian colonial "gingerbread" style residential buildings. The Sunday livestock market is a good place to see remnants of the traditional nomadic rural life.

Przhevalsky's grave, a memorial park and a small museum dedicated to his and other Russian explorations in Central Asia are some 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) north of Karakol at Pristan Przhevalsky, overlooking the Mikhailovka inlet of Lake Issyk-Kul where the former Soviet torpedo testing facilities were located. Facilities themselves are still a closed, military area.

 

Tash Rabat
The ancient caravanserai at Tash-Rabat, is the brightest unique monument of Kyrgyzstan history. It is located 3,500 m above the sea level in the picturesque place surrounded by the mountains of the At-Bashin ridge.

According to one assumption Tash-Rabat was constructed in the 9th – 11th centuries and was a monastery. Four centuries later during the epoch of active trade on the Silk Road Tash-Rabat lost its cult value and became the caravanserai, i.e. an inn for numerous foreign merchants on the Silk Road. From there caravans went to Kashgar and Fergana valley.

Tash-Rabat was constructed on artificial platform, on the mountain and is a rectangular building with the sides accurately pointing to 4 corners of the earth. The front side with the portal looks to the East. On around the outer side round the pillars of gate-doors there are stone benches. The big corridor and the hall floors are paved with flat stones; in other premises and corridors the floors are not paved

 

Turgat Pass

The Torugart Pass (3752 m) is a remote mountain border crossing between Kyrgyzstan and China .  Until 2002 when the Irkeshtam pass was opened for passenger traffic between the two countries it was the ONLY border crossing between China and the Kyrgyz Republic which could be used by tourists – for example, those  travelling the Silk Road . 

In 1905 the British Consul in Kashgar, (George Macartney) discovered that the Russians had built a 27 foot wide road from At Bashi in Kyrgyzstan to Torugart and for about half a mile into China itself.  A major player in “The Great Game” between the British and Russian Empires both of which were seeking influence in Central Asia, he reported to his superiors that the road could easily be “made good” and should Russia choose to annex all or part of Xinjiang province, then this was the route along which their troops would come.  In 1906, the Chinese government gave in to Russian pressure and agreed to complete the road using a loan from a Russian bank - recouping the money by levying tolls - and Russian merchants were given a monopoly of trade along the route.  The Chinese, however, were not happy at this arrangement and set the tolls so high that the road soon fell into disuse and disrepair. 

Paul Nazaroff in his book “Hunted through Central Asia – On the turn from Lenin's secret police” tells of how he experienced difficult conditions and bureaucracy.  Even being turned back – just like many unwitting and unprepared modern traveller.

Now you can travel the modern road, though truth to tell, it is not yet very modern (although many sections are not tarmac some of it is - indeed, part of it near At Bashi once served as an emergency airstrip in case of Chinese invasion).

Planning trip over Torugart pass please make sure you are not going to be there on the following dates as the border is usually closed: May 1-May 10, August 1 and August 2, October 1-October 7 and every Saturday and Sunday.

 

Irkeshtam pass

Irkeshtam is most easily accessed from Osh, the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, in the South of the country. The road travels south along the valley of the Taldyk and Gulcho river gorges to the village of Sary Tash ("Yellow Stone" in Kyrgyz), which sits at a crossroad. To the West lies the road to Dushanbe in Tajikistan through the Kyzyl-Suu valley; to the South lies the road over the Kyzyl Art pass into the Gorno Badakshan region of Tajikistan and Murgab; to the east, heading into the mountains, lies the road to Irkeshtam and the Chinese border.

This stretch of road is infamous for road accidents. On the Chinese side, the road to Kashgar is better, but still difficult.

As the shortest route to China from the Ferghana valley in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan there has been a lot of interest in repairing the road - which would take about 6 years to complete - including a TACIS funded project. The work came to a halt after armed insurgents threatened the stability of the region in 1999. As of 2007-8 reconstruction of the road was underway, with Chinese companies performing the work, and was scheduled to be completed to Gulcho in 2009.

In Soviet times, China was seen as a real threat and this was reflected on the border. Now the two countries are allies and relationships between the respective border troops are friendly. The border post is named in honor of a frontier border guard, Andrei Bescennov, who was killed in a clash with the Basmachi rebels in 1931. Until the end of 1999 it was manned by Russian troops - who apparently took all their equipment when they left. The post is now manned by border guards from Osh province. It is not an easy posting. By all accounts, the guards are not fed well … but no one has died of hunger. However, a year's service here is counted as equal to two years' military service elsewhere.

In this mountainous region, as in Kyrgyzstan generally, horses play an important role in daily life. The lack of roads means that soldiers who patrol the border ride a local breed of Kyrgyz pony which are renowned for being sturdy and well suited to this sort of terrain. The post also boasts a number of dogs, including German shepherds and a number of mongrels.

For years, Irkeshtam pass was open only to commercial goods traffic for a limited period each month, although for many years there were plans to open it for passenger traffic, which finally came to fruition in the summer of 2002. Technically, no special permission is needed to cross the border here, but it is still a sensitive border zone. Also, it's remoteness means that transport has to be arranged on both sides of the border - which means that, once again, it is not a cheap border crossing. There is talk of a bus service - but this is not yet in operation.

The Chinese immigration post is housed in a large, new, purpose built building, three kilometers from the border - and it is another three kilometers to the Kyrgyz post. As with theTorugart Pass, you are not allowed to walk across this "no-man's land".