Issyk Kul Region

Issyk Kul Province (Kyrgyz: Ысык-Көл областы) is a province (oblast) o Kyrgyzstan. Its caipital is Karakol. It is surroondit by Almaty Province, Kazakhstan (north), Chui Province (wast), Naryn Province (soothwast) an Xinjiang, Cheenae (sootheast).

Geography
The north is dominatit bi the eye-shaped Issyk Kul Lake, surroondit bi the ridges o the Tian Shan muntain seestem: the Kyungey Ala-Too muntains tae the north an the Terskey Alatau tae the sooth (the 'sunny' an 'shady' Alatau, respectively). Tae the sooth is muntains an 'jailoos' (muntain meadows uised for simmer grazin). The heichest peaks o the Tian Shan muntains, includin Khan Tengri, are locatit in the eastrenmaist pairt o the province.  

Maist o the population o the province bides aroond the loch, in particular in the ceeties o Balykchy naur the loch's wastren end, an Karakol naur its eastren end.

Basic socio-economic indicators

 Population: 437,200 (assessment for 1 Januar 2009) including 28.7% - urban, and 71.3% - rural population
 Employed population: 180,300 (2008) 
 Registered unemployed population: 4,902 (2008)
 Export: 18.8 million US dollars (2008)
 Import: 221.7 million US dollars (2008) 
 Direct Foreign Investments: 1,1 million US dollars (in 2008)

Transportation
The railwey comin frae the northwast (frae Bishkek) ends at Balykchy. The main hieway (A365) frae Bishkek passes through Balykchy an intae Naryn Province on its way tae the Torugart Pass intae Cheenae.  Hieway A363 circles the loch an A362 runs east frae the loch intae Kazakhstan. 

Tourism
The province, whilk resembles the Alps or Colorado, woud be a major tourist destination wur it no for its remoteness, unnerdeveloped infrastructure, an growin conflict atween Kyrgyz naitionalists an independence factions, which in December 2008 flared up again, killin 39 civilians. Currently, it is visited maistly bi locals who uise the Soviet-era establishments aroond the lake an the mair adventurous sort o internaitional tourist.

Trivia
There is a veelage bi the name o Kyzyldzhildyz in this province. Its name is haurd enough tae pronoonce for foreigners tae the leid that the clachan's mayor haes affered a reward for ony American that can pronoonce "Kyzyldzhildyz".

Destricts o Issyk Kul
A mosque in Tamchy veelage, Issyk Kul Province|thumb|right
Issyk Kul is dividit admeenistratively intae 5 destricts::

 Destrict  CaipitalAk-Suu Destrict  KarakolJeti-Oguz Destrict  Kyzyl-SuuTong Destrict  BokonbaevTup Destrict  TyupIssyk Kul Destrict  Cholpon-Ata

References

Laurence Mitchell, Kyrgyzstan, Bradt Travel Guides, 2008

 Freemit airtins 
 Guide tae the region frae the Spektator magazine 
  Karakol - Djeti-Oguz region in Central Tien-Shan  (Mountaineering reports and maps. Although the site is in English, with some web browsers you may need to set "Character Encoding" to "Cyrillic" in the "View" menu of your browser in order to get better display of the main page).


Category:Regions o Kyrgyzstan