The Underwater Forest of Kaindy Lake – The beautiful Kaindy lake is a 400-meter-long reservoir in Kazakhstan’s portion of the Tian Shan Mountains actually located 129 kilometers from the city of Almaty. The Kaindy Lake came into existence after an enormous limestone landslide in 1911 that triggered a big landslide blocking the gorge and forming a natural dam.
Subsequently, rainwater filled the valley and formed the lake. The track leads to Lake Kaindy and has numerous scenic views of the Saty Gorge, the Chilik Valley, and the Kaindy Gorge, but dried-out trunks of submerged Picea schrenkiana trees rise above the surface.
The Kaindy Lake is popular for its scenic exquisiteness mainly the submerged forest and the imposing trunks of spruce trees that rise out of the lake water. Moreover the above water, the sunken trees appear as large masts from lost ghost ships, or perhaps the spears of a mysterious army hiding and waiting for the right time to emerge.
The water is so cold even in summer the temperature does not surpass 6 degrees that the great pines still remain on the trees, even a hundred years later, and the clear mountain water, you can observe deep into the depths of the lake. In winter, the lake surface freezes over and during this time, Lake Kaindy becomes a great spot for trout fishing and ice diving.
The lake water itself is often of a somewhat kryptonite hue and strange coloration is mainly caused by lime and other mineral deposits which have been seeped into the water since the lake’s creation. Yet once you get closer to the lake the water appears crystal clear and you can see the trout which were introduced into the lake in the 1930s.
Very surprisingly the lake has few visitors, partly because the lake is overshadowed by the more famed Bolshoe Almatinskoe Lake and the Kolsay Lakes, all of which are close by, but far easier to reach from Almaty. Thus, notwithstanding its proximity to a city with a populace of more than one million, the lake retains a peaceful atmosphere.
The Underwater Forest of Kaindy Lake – The beautiful Kaindy lake is a 400-meter-long reservoir in Kazakhstan’s portion of the Tian Shan Mountains actually located 129 kilometers from the city of Almaty.
