The Issyk () is a river in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

that crosses the

Issyk Lake The Lake Issyk also known as Issyk Lake () is a lake in Kazakhstan fed by the Issyk River. History It is estimated that the lake was formed about 8-10 millennia ago, as a result of a catastrophic earthquake that caused the collapse of the right ...

(not to be confused with the much greater

Issyk Kul Lake Issyk-Kul () or Ysyk-Köl (, ; ) is an endorheic saline lake in the western Tianshan Mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan, just south of a dividing range separating Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan. It is the eighth-deepest lake in the world, the eleve ...

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

) and the town of

Esik Esik ( (''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 km east of ...

. It is a tributary of the river

Ili Ili, ILI, Illi may refer to: Abbreviations * Indian Law Institute * Influenza-like illness * Intelligent Land Investments * Intensive lifestyle intervention, a type of lifestyle medicine * International Law Institute, a non-profit organization ...

.Иссык (город в Казах. ССР)

Great Soviet Encyclopedia The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; , ''BSE'') 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 ''Great Russian Enc ...

One of the largest rivers on the northern slope of the

Trans-Ili Alatau Ile Alatau (, ''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, stretching for ...

, 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 of a large mountainous obstruction damming the lake and, perhaps, because of moraines buried under the obstruction. In 1963, the overspill of

caused a large

flood A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, 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 of significant con ...

References

{{Rivers of Kazakhstan Rivers of Kazakhstan