Karakol

Want to feel like an explorer? Practicing high mountain hiking among nomad camps and wild horses? In this case do not hesitate: visit Karakol. A name that sounds surely defies common mortals in Europe. But today designating the busiest city for foreign visitors who tour the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.

With 75,000 inhabitants, the town of Karakol is a perfect compendium of a country that, after independence in 1991, is becoming emerging tourist destination. As a microcosm: all Kyrgyzstan is summarized in Karakol. Because of its location, first, on the banks of one of these multiple alpine lakes of turquoise waters and surrounding snow-capped peaks that are scattered throughout the Kyrgyz geography. And not just any alpine lake: at 1,620 meters, Issyk-Kul, mythical site also legendary Silk Road, is the largest in the world after Titicaca.

This aquatic proximity motivates the city was forbidden zone in Soviet times: here was an ultra-secret project to develop advanced torpedoes. Since then, however, Karakol has reopened to the world, and there are only about communism and grandiose statues of socialist heroes, including Lenin himself pointing at arm a promising future.