The Issyk ( kk, Есік, lit=hot, translit=Esik) is a river in
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
that crosses the
Issyk Lake (not to be confused with the much greater
Issyk Kul Lake
Issyk-Kul (also Ysyk-Köl, ky, Ысык-Көл, lit=warm lake, translit=Ysyk-Köl, , zh, 伊塞克湖) is an endorheic lake (i.e., without outflow) in the Northern Tian Shan mountains in Eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the seventh-deepest lake in th ...
in
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the ea ...
) and the town of
Esik
Esik ( kz, Есік (''Esık''), also spelled ''Issyk'', ''Yesik'' and ''Yesyk'') is a town in Almaty Region of Kazakhstan, the administrative center of Enbekshikazakh District. It is located on the Issyk River, at the foot of the Tian Shan, 53&n ...
. It is a tributary of the river
Ili
Ili, ILI, Illi may refer to:
Abbreviations
* Irish Life International, part of Irish Life and Permanent
* Intuitive Logical Introvert, a personality type in socionics
* Influenza-like illness
* Iran Language Institute, a state-owned, non-profit ...
.
Иссык (город в Казах. ССР)
Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
One of the largest rivers on the northern slope of the Trans-Ili Alatau
Ile Alatau ( kk, Ile Alatauy, ''Іле Алатауы''), also spelt as Trans-Ili Alatau, is a part of the Northern Tian Shan mountain system (ancient Mount Imeon) in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is the northernmost mountain range of Tian Shan st ...
, its headwaters come from 32 active glaciers that cover an area of . The largest glaciers are the Zharsai with an exposed length of and an area of , the Grigoriev with a length of and an area of , and the Pal'gov at long with a surface of . They descend from the crest of the main divide, which has an average absolute height of more than . Within the mountains the river is long, the gradient of its longitudinal profile is per kilometer, and the basin area is .
In its upper reaches the river flows down a very steep slope (10-15°) over the deposits of a moraine overgrown with some vegetation and forms a deep (as much as 70 m) canyon; then, in front of the terminal vegetation-free moraine of the Pal'gov glacier, its longitudinal profile flattens out abruptly_ Here the river forms numerous branches over an outwash plain. Below Lake Akkul' (its absolute elevation is 3,140 m), the longitudinal profile undergoes another sharp drop because a large mountainous obstruction damming the lake and, perhaps, because of moraines buried under the obstruction.
In 1963, the overspill of Issyk Lake caused a large flood
A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...
.
References
{{Rivers of Kazakhstan
Rivers of Kazakhstan