he name refers both to the lake and the oblast (region) containing the lake. The region is centered around the massive Issyk Kul lake, which is the second largest alpine lake in the world. It is completely ringed by the massive snow-capped Tian Shan mountains that lie between 3000 and 4000 meters.

The Issyk Kul lake reaches to 663 meters deep in the center. The east end of the lake was also once used as a torpedo testing site by the Soviet Navy, making the region off limits to foreigners for a period of time.