Barskon

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Barskon, Barskoon or Barskaun, ancient Barsgan or Barsqan (Russian: Барскон; Kyrgyz: Барскоон) is a small settlement on the southern shore of Lake Issyk Kul in the Issyk Kul Province of Kyrgyzstan.

1 Geography
2 History
3 Facts
4 See also
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Geography

Barskon is a village at the mouth of the Barskon valley - which has an impressive waterfall and is a good centre for trekking and horse riding. Its geographical location is 42° 9' 22 N and 77° 36' 14 E and altitude is about 1753 meters.

[edit] History

Ancient caravan ways dispersed from here, ancient Barsqan, to the East and South , to China and India, the ruins of a caravanserai are quite evidences of those times. The 11th century scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari (also known as Barskhani) was a native of this area. He is best known as the author of the first Turkic languages comparative dictionary which he wrote whilst living in Baghdad in 1072-4. His map of the then known world has Barskon at the centre of the world. His tomb is South of Kashgar - on the road to Pakistan.

[edit] Facts

The road from Barskon which passes up the Barskon valley, (the A364) used to be one of the routes of the Silk Road, passing over the Bedel Pass (4284 m) into China. It is now the main road leading to the Kumtor Gold mine - hence it is well maintained and there is a reasonable amount of traffic - including lorries making their way up to the mine and back. In the Spring of 2000 - a lorry carrying cyanide used in the gold refining process was involved in an accident - leaving the road and crashing into a stream - polluting the waters and decimating the tourist industry around Lake Issyk Kul as many CIS tourists cancelled their planned holidays.

There are two interesting sights along the road - a Soviet lorry mounted on a plinth and a bust of Yuri Gagarin, who holidayed on the South shore of Issyk Kul after his historical first manned space flight.

In the mountains to the East is a region known as Sytyr - an "alpine cold desert". In Soviet times the road turned East along the upper Naryn River and looped round over the Yshtyk Pass (3689 m) to Ak Shyrak, Enilchek and eventually back to the city of Karakol. Unfortunately, some of the bridges are now down and the road, (never an easy route), is no longer passable. Barskon is the home of Shepherd's Way Trekking. ^[1]