Understand
Issyk Kul is a slightly saline deep water body. Years of over-fishing have decimated its fisheries and many of the smoked fish sold in the surronding cities come from other alpine lakes. Due to a lack of reasonable control on tourism, many sub-standard and unfinished low quality tourism resorts ring the lake's north shore. Nevertheless, there still remain numerous places to appreciate the true beauty of Issyk Kul.
A mountain pass road being constructed between Issyk Kul and Almaty, Kazakhstan is set to increase the number of tourists in the coming years and without government controls on development, exposing the lake to more tourists will only deplete its natural beauty.
