Note: Javascript is disabled in your browser.
To see the gallery in all its glory, you'll need to enable Javascript.
Introducing Karakol
Karakol is a peaceful, low-rise town with backstreets full of Russian gingerbread cottages, shaded by rows of huge white poplars. Around the town are apple orchards, for which the area is famous. This is the administrative centre of Issyk-Köl province, and the best base for exploring the lakeshore, the Terskey Alatau and the central Tian Shan. It also has a very good Sunday market. In fact, try to time your visit to include a Sunday, when the animal bazaar and Russian Cathedral are at their most active.
Advertisement
It’s not quite paradise for those who live here – the economic stresses since independence and the decline in spa tourism have led to considerable hardship, thinned out available goods and services, and returned a kind of frontier atmosphere to this old boundary post.
The town name means something like ‘black hand/wrist’, possibly a reference to the hands of immigrant Russian peasants, black from the valley’s rich soil.
Last updated: Sep 26, 2008
Advertisement
