Barskoon
Barskoon and Tamga are twin Kyrgyz and Russian villages at the mouth
of the Barskoon valley — which has an impressive waterfall.
The 11th century scholar Mahumud 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. His map of the then known world has Barskoon at the centre
of the world. His tomb is South of Kashgar — on the road to Pakistan.
The road from Barskoon which passes up the Barskoon valley, used
to be one of the routes of the Silk Road 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 along the road — a Soviet lorry mounted
on a plinth and a bust of Yuri Gagarin, who holiday ed on the South shore
of Issyk-Kul after his historic first manned space flight.
Kyrgyzstan
