Karakol Karakol List of volcanoes Category="Cities in Kyrgyzstan"Karakol (black wrist in Kyrgyz) is a city of about 75,000, located near the eastern tip of lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan and about 150 km from the Kyrgyz-Chinese border. It is the administrative capital of Ysyk-Kol Oblasty (province).

History

A Russian military outpost since about 1860, Karakol grew in the 19th century after explorers came to map the peaks and valleys separating Kyrgyzstan from China. In the 1880s Karakol's population surged with an influx of Dungans, Chinese Muslims fleeing persecution in China.

In 1888, when the Russian explorer Nicholas Przhevalsky died in Karakol of typhoid, while preparing for an expedition to Tibet, the city was renamed Przhevalsk in his honor. After local protests, the town was given its original name back in 1921 -- a decision reversed in 1939. Karakol then remained Przhevalsk until the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Nearby Lake Issyk-Kul was used by the Soviet military as a testing site for torpedo propulsion and guidance systems, and Karakol was thus home to a sizeable population of military and scientific experts and their families.

Sights

The town itself contains little of interest for a visitor, except a very pretty wooden Mosque built by local Dungans between 1907 and 1911 entirely without metal nails and a similarly appealing wooden Russian Orthodox church, the Holy Trinity Cathedral, completed in 1895, used as a stable during Soviet times, but now restored and in use again. The Regional Museum has exhibits on the Issyk-Kul petroglyphs and Scythian bronze artifacts. There also is a small section of Russian colonial "gingerbread" style residential buildings. The town is, however, a good starting point for excellent hiking and trekking in the Tian Shan.