Alkaline lake
Issyk-Kul
Natural Earth’s outline of Issyk-Kul measures about 6,260 km² (2,420 mi²), the 24th largest of the 104 lakes on sizeversus, and 1.10× the size of Brunei.
50 km
- Issyk-Kul
- Brunei
The numbers
- 6,260km²Area, measured2,420 mi² · Natural Earth outline
- 6,240km²Area, publishedWikidata · agrees within 2%
- 668mGreatest depthaverage about 278 m
- 1,738km³VolumeWikidata
- 1,606mAbove sea levelSurface, Wikidata
The area is measured from the outline drawn above, on the WGS84 ellipsoid; the published figure is shown beside it, and a water body is kept only if the two are within 10%.
What the numbers say about Issyk-Kul
- The Caspian Sea (called a sea or a lake, depending on the definition), the largest of the 104 lakes ranked on sizeversus, is 60.6× the size of Issyk-Kul; Issyk-Kul ranks 24th.
- Issyk-Kul sits between Reindeer Lake (6,720 km²) and Vänern (5,750 km²) in the ranking.
- Counted as a country, Issyk-Kul would be larger than 45 of the 212 countries listed on sizeversus and would rank 168th by area, between Lebanon (10,000 km²) and Palestine (6,070 km²).
- It is larger than 3 of the 51 US states and districts (the biggest of them is Delaware, 5,170 km²) and smaller than 48.
- It is smaller than every one of the 31 provinces and regions of China.
- The closest Chinese province is Shanghai (6,750 km²): Issyk-Kul is 93% of the size of Shanghai.
- Wikidata records a greatest depth of 668 m; with its volume that gives an average depth of about 278 m.
- Wikidata records a volume of 1,738 km³. Poured over Brunei (5,720 km²), that water would stand 304 m deep.
- Its surface lies about 1,606 m above sea level (Wikidata).
- On a standard web map (Web Mercator), a place at 42°N is drawn about 1.8× too large in area, so Issyk-Kul looks bigger there than it is.
- Laid out flat, Issyk-Kul stretches about 66 km north to south and 175 km east to west.
- Wikidata’s published figure of 6,240 km² agrees with our measured 6,260 km², to within 2%.
About the same size as
Countries
On the shore
Natural Earth’s outlines of Kyrgyzstan contain or lie within 4 km of the outline of Issyk-Kul. That is what its geometry says, and it is not a statement about who owns the water or where any border runs in it.
Names
- Issyk-Kulthe name in this page’s titlesource: Wikidata’s English label
- Ysyk Kölalso calledsource: Natural Earth
Where Issyk-Kul ranks
Issyk-Kul is the 24th largest of the 104 lakes on sizeversus, ranked by measured area.
Compare Issyk-Kul
Share this outline
Sources and method
- Outline
- Natural Earth, 1:10m Lakes + Reservoirs, public domain (Lakes + Reservoirs). Outlines of lakes are drawn at 1:10 million.
- Boundary
- A lake or a sea has no legal boundary of its own. The outline is a cartographic one, and the page says so by showing the measured area beside the published one.
- Area basis
- Measured outline: computed on the WGS84 ellipsoid from the full-detail outline and shown rounded. Published figure: Wikidata (CC0), fetched 2026-11-11. An outline is kept within 10% of the published figure and matched to other places automatically within 5%.
- Depth, volume, height
- As recorded in Wikidata; a volume that cannot be right for the area and depth is left out.
- Shore
- Countries whose Natural Earth outline contains or comes close to the water's outline; computed, not a statement of ownership.
- Drawing
- Each outline is projected with an equal-area projection centred on its own centroid, so areas stay true and two can be laid over each other.
- Data built
- 2026-11-11