Issyk River


The Issyk River is a river in Kazakhstan that crosses the Issyk Lake and the town of Esik.
One of the largest rivers on the northern slope of the Trans-Ili Alatau, 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 over the deposits of a moraine overgrown with some vegetation and forms a deep 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', 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.