| Issyk-Kul | |
|---|---|
 Southern shore of Issyk-Kul, 2005 | |
  Issyk-Kul  Issyk-Kul | |
 Issyk-Kul from space, September 1992 | |
| Coordinates | 42°25′N 77°15′E / 42.417°N 77.250°E |
| Lake type | Ancient lake, Endorheic Mountain lake Monomictic |
| Primary inflows | Glaciers |
| Primary outflows | Evaporation |
| Catchment area | 15,844 square kilometres (6,117 sq mi) |
| Basin countries | Kyrgyzstan |
| Max. length | 178 kilometres (111 mi) |
| Max. width | 60.1 kilometres (37.3 mi) |
| Surface area | 6,236 square kilometres (2,408 sq mi) |
| Average depth | 278.4 metres (913 ft) |
| Max. depth | 668 metres (2,192 ft) |
| Water volume | 1,736 cubic kilometres (416 cu mi) |
| Residence time | ~330 years |
| Salinity | 6g/L |
| Shore length1 | 669 kilometres (416 mi) |
| Surface elevation | 1,607 metres (5,272 ft) |
| Settlements | Balykchy, Cholpon-Ata, Karakol |
| Official name | The Issyk-kul State Nature Reserve with the Issyk-kul Lake |
| Designated | 12 November 2002 |
| Reference no. | 1231 |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Issyk-Kul (also Ysyk-Köl, Kyrgyz: Ысык-Көл, romanized: Ysyk-Köl, lit. 'warm lake' is an endorheic saline lake in the western Tianshan Mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is just south of a dividing range separating Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan. It is the seventh-deepest lake in the world, the tenth-biggest lake in the world by volume (though not in surface area) and the third-biggest saline lake. Issyk-Kul means "warm lake" in the Kyrgyz language. This is because even though the area it is in gets very cold during winter, the salinity of the lake makes it rarely freeze.
The lake is a Ramsar site of globally significant biodiversity. It is also part of the Issyk-Kul Biosphere Reserve.
