This peaceful Russian town was founded on 1st of
July in 1869 as Russian Military fortification on the Shore of Issyk-Kul Lake.
By this time the town had a high proportion of military officers, explorers
of Russian Geographical society, merchants and professionals. The town’s
Soviet name was Prjevalsk after the Great Russian Explorer of Central Asia and
China Nikolai Prjevalskyi whose last expedition ended here and who is buried
on the lakeshore near Karakol.
Until our days Karakol preserved old russian style
houses with window-shutters built in the end of 19th - begining of 20th ceturies.
Go backstreets!
Karakol named after river Kalakol flowing thru
the town and means black hand or black wrist.
A number of trekking routes starts from Karakol.
Please refer to our trekking tour offers.
Things to see here include:
Holy Trinity Cathederal, built in 1872,
a fine stone church fell down in 1890 after an earthquake. Present wooden building
was built in 1895 and partly destroyed by Bolsheviks in 1930. Services are again
being held, since the reconstruction in 1991. This Russian Orthodox church contains
unique icon of Tikhvinian Virgin Mary that is believed to cure people from almost
any disease. It survived in the ages when Bolsheviks pursued monks and destroyed
churches by being left floating in the waters of the Issyk-Kul lake. You can
still see three bullets that stuck in the icon proving it's holy qualities.
Dungan Mosque
One of the most beautiful Karakol’s architecture. It was built
by local dungans, without any nails in 1911 after 4years work by Chinese architect
and 30 artisans. The mosque was closed by Bolsheviks from 1933 to 1943, but
since then has again been a place of worship. While it was built by Dungans
it serves all muslims of Karakol despite their ethnic background. The building
impresses with an amount of perfect wood carving. You can find some items of
chinese mythology in the patterns if you stay patient.
Bazaar
Very exciting place! Looks like it's a small city that lives it's
own life. You can find nearly anything here: carpets, traditional hats, nails,
bycycle parts, ham, honey, sour cream, berries and fruit that people grew in
own orchards and brought here to sell, etc. You have to try Ash-Liam-Fu - spicy
noodle and starch dish served cold. It is a part of dungan national food that
became popular among russians and kyrgyz. Good selection of kyrgyz national
drinks like: kumys, dzharma, bozo, maksym, etc. However, as production of this
drinks involves some fermentation, we recommend you to try one drink at a time
to avoid getting upset stomaich. Bazaar runs every day while most crowded on
sundays.
Sunday Animal market
A must visit place is a Sunday animal market. With lot’s of
people selling and buying horses, cattle, sheep, pigs and other creatures. Only
on Sundays, early in the morning.
Jety-Oguz valley
Located 40 km away from Karakol. A beautifull mountain best served
with legends by professional guide. Jety-Oguz is a great place for hiking or
to start trekking to Altyn-Arashan. It impresses travellers with colorfull rocks,
woods, flowers, rushing river and yurts.
Museum of Przhevalsky
State Memorial Museum of the great russian traveller Nikolai
Mikhailovich Przhevalsky located 12 km from Karakol, on the shore of Issyk-Kul
lake. It includes beautiful monument, travelers grave, chapel and indoor
museum that contains a number of documents, deeds and diplomas of Przhevalsky,
collection of stuffed birds and animals and personal belongings of the scientist.
Discovery of wild horses that named after him is only one of the number of usefull
contributions that he made to the world science during his life.
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