The Lost Treasures of Issyk-Kul: Gold, Monks and Genghis Khan

For centuries Issyk-Kul has drawn treasure hunters. The lake lay on the Silk Road, cities rose and sank along its shores, and armies, merchants and refugees passed through. The Kyrgyz tell of hundreds of hidden hoards — and several times in the 20th century, people went looking for real. Here are the most famous legends.

The golden boat

Long ago the ruler of a city on the shore watched the water rise higher every year and decided to move his people to a safer place. But there was war and unrest everywhere; he trusted no one. Until a new treasury could be built, he loaded his gold into a boat and sank it in a place only he knew.

The ruler died during the move, and the secret died with him. The golden boat, they say, still lies somewhere at the bottom of the lake.

The monks’ caravan

In 1218 Genghis Khan sent an army under his general Jebe into the Chui valley. The Christian monks of the old Silk Road city of Suyab and the rich Christian townspeople fled, taking their treasures with them: a caravan of two hundred camels loaded with gold and silver, heading along the north shore of Issyk-Kul towards Kashgar.

Then scouts brought news: Mongol horsemen were coming the other way, over the Santash pass. Trapped between the mountains and the lake, the refugees stopped at a monastery of Armenian monks on the shore — the same monastery that appears on the Catalan Atlas. In one night they hid part of the treasure on the beach and in the shallows.

In the morning the caravan moved into the mountains to a cave where a river flowed in. They turned the river aside, laid the rest of the treasure on the floor of the cave, covered it with stone slabs — one carved with a cross — then let the river back into its bed. The treasure was drowned.

The grave of Genghis Khan

Archaeologists have searched for the tomb of Genghis Khan in Mongolia for decades. Some Kyrgyz storytellers say they are looking in the wrong place. According to their legend, after the great khan died in 1227, his sons staged a false funeral far away, while his body was secretly carried to Issyk-Kul. His son Chagatai, who ruled these lands, had a coffin made of mountain juniper, filled it with gold and jewels and sank it in the depths of the lake. Everyone who took part was killed so that the secret would never be told.

Treasure hunters of the 20th century

These stories were taken surprisingly seriously. In the 1920s, emigrants returning from China are said to have dug in a cave near Kurmenty with an old map, and to have found a stone slab with unknown writing before they were stopped. In Soviet times, newspapers reported that state organisations were checking the legends, and geologists probed the north-east shore. Later expeditions explored the drowned settlements with divers and instruments. Pottery, coins and building remains have been found — but no golden boat, and no khan.

If you ever stumble on a hoard yourself: under Kyrgyz law, finds of historical value belong to the state — though the finder is entitled to a reward.

Visit

Explore the shores of Issyk-Kul, the museum in Cholpon-Ata and the bays of the north-east shore on our lake tours. Read also: The sunken city of Issyk-Kul. More legends and places: the Kyrgyzstan travel guide.