a city since 1968, administrative center of Enbekshi Kazakh Raion, Alma-Ata Oblast, Kazakh SSR. Situated on the Issyk River, a tributary of the Hi, 49 km east of Alma-Ata, with which it is linked by highway. Population 22,000 (1970). Issyk has a plant producing pottery-gypsum articles, a dairy, a fruit-canning complex, and a textile and garment factory.
(Esik, Bol’shoe Issyk Lake), a lake that existed until 1963 in Alma-Ata Oblast, Kazakh SSR, on the northern slope of the Trans-Ili Alatau.
The lake was at an elevation of 1,760 m. Its area averaged 0.7 sq km and its depth 17.5 m, reaching a maximum of 55 m. The catastrophic mudflow of July 7, 1963, demolished the Issyk valley obstruction that had held back the waters of the lake. As a result, the lake ceased to exist.