Lake Iskanderkul is the largest and most beautiful lake in the Fan Mountains, located at an altitude of 2195 m above sea level in the Sughd region of Tajikistan. The lake has the shape of an irregular triangle with rounded corners. Area 3.5 sq. km, depth 72.0 m.
It is surrounded on all sides by mountain peaks rising above the lake to a height of more than a kilometer. A particularly beautiful view of the crystal clear turquoise waters of the lake opens from Mount Dozhdemernaya (3342m). It is also called “Alexander’s helmet”
The highest of the surrounding peaks, Mount Chil-Shaitan, rises almost four kilometers above sea level.
The lake is flowing, fed by the waters of the Sarytag, Khozormech and Serima rivers. The Iskander-Darya river flows from the lake. A kilometer below the source, the river breaks into a narrow gorge with a powerful forty-meter waterfall - the “Fan Niagara”.
Poplars, birches, and aspens grow at the mouths of rivers, forming small picturesque groves. Along the banks of Iskanderkul stretches a narrow strip of bushes of willow, barberry, rose hips and sea buckthorn. The bluish-green water of the lake is quite cold, but it is quite possible to swim off the shores and in sheltered bays in summer.
In winter, Iskanderkul freezes, and only in the middle of it does a strip formed by a stream of flowing water remain.
In the vicinity of the lake live mountain partridges, crested hoopoes, and snowcock turkeys.
Many legends are associated with Lake Iskanderkul. According to one of them, Alexander the Great himself once passed through the Fann Mountains with his army, and while the commander was stationed on the shores of the lake, Alexander’s favorite horse, Bucephalus, drowned in it. There is a version that the lake itself owes its name to Alexander the Great - the name Alexander in Central Asia was pronounced like Iskander.
In fact, Lake Iskanderkul was formed in an ancient glacial valley, blocked by a dam from moraine deposits of a glacier and a powerful mountain collapse.
Near Iskanderkul, in the gorge of the Serima River, there is a small beautiful lake Zmeinoye, so named because of the snakes seen in its waters.
On the southern shore of Lake Iskanderkul, at the mouth of the Sarytag River, there is a modest dacha of the President of Tajikistan.
Above Iskanderkul, at the foot of the beautiful Chil Shaitan mountain (Sarytag peak), 3904m, nestles the small village of Sarytag. There are several family guest houses where tourists can stay. Several interesting tourist routes begin from the village of Sarytag.
One of them to the north along the picturesque gorge of the Arg River with views of the highest peaks of the region - peaks Energia (5120 m) and Chimtarga (5489 m); you can approach the Kaznok pass (4040 m), after overcoming which you can get to Lake Mutnoye and then descend to the beautiful Alaudin lakes.
Another equally interesting route leads west through the Dukdon pass (3812 m), the Archamaidan valley and the Tavasang pass (3307 m) to the uniquely beautiful Marguzor lakes.
