Karakol: wooden churches, a Dungan mosque and valleys made for hiking

At a glance

• Where: at the eastern tip of Issyk-Kul, about 400 km from Bishkek.
• How long: one day in town, plus one or two days in the valleys around it.
• Best time: June to September for hiking; December to March for skiing.
• Altitude: 1,745 m in town; the valleys behind it rise above 3,000 m.

Interesting facts

• Karakol was founded in 1869 as a Russian military outpost on the road to China.
• For most of the 20th century it was called Przhevalsk, after the explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky, who died here in 1888 at the start of an expedition to Tibet. He is buried, as he asked, on the shore of the lake at Pristan, about 9 km north of town, beside a museum about his travels.
• The Dungan mosque was built between 1904 and 1910 by Dungan Muslims, people of Chinese origin, to a design by a Beijing architect. With its pagoda roof and painted wood, it looks more like a Chinese temple than a mosque. Guides like to say it was built without a single nail.
• The first church in Karakol was made of stone, but an earthquake destroyed it in 1890. The wooden Holy Trinity Cathedral that replaced it was finished in 1895 and still stands.

What to see and do

In town, walk from the Holy Trinity Cathedral to the Dungan mosque, then try ashlan-fu for lunch: cold noodles with starch jelly in a spicy, vinegary broth, for around 100 som a bowl. If you are here on a Sunday, get up early for the animal market, where farmers trade sheep, cows and horses until about 10 o'clock.

Behind the town, the valleys of the Terskey Ala-Too range open up. Jeti-Oguz, 28 km west, has red cliffs known as the Seven Bulls and the Broken Heart. Altyn-Arashan, the "golden spring", is a high valley of pine forest and meadows with hot springs of around 40 °C, reached by a 4x4 or an old Soviet truck in about an hour and a half, or on foot in five or six hours.

In winter, Karakol ski base, 7 km from town, has some of the best snow in the region, with runs through spruce forest and plenty of off-piste. See our guide to skiing in Central Asia.

Important notes

• Altyn-Arashan is open to visitors from about June to September; the track is rough and best done in a 4x4.
• Animal market: it is a working market, not a show. Ask before you photograph people.
• Weather: even in summer, storms build over the mountains in the afternoon; start hikes early.
• Cash: there are ATMs in Karakol, but not in the valleys or the yurt camps.

What to bring

• Hiking boots and a rain jacket for the valleys.
• Swimwear and flip-flops for the hot springs.
• A warm layer: nights at Altyn-Arashan are cold even in July.
• In winter: ski goggles, gloves and a buff; the base is at 2,300 m.

Karakol is on our 5-day tour with Altyn-Arashan, the 7-day Kyrgyzstan classic and, in winter, the Karakol ski week.