Tamchy is a village in the Issyk Kul District

Issyk Kul District

Issyk Kul District is a raion of Issyk Kul Province in north-eastern Kyrgyzstan.The capital lies at Cholpon-Ata. :The district is located on the northern shore of Issyk Kul, which dominates much of the landscape....

 of the Issyk Kul Province

Issyk Kul Province

Issyk Kul Province is a province of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Karakol. It is surrounded by Almaty Province, Kazakhstan , Chui Province , Naryn Province and Xinjiang, China ....

 of Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...

. The name used to be transcribed into English as Tamchi, and some local road signs have it, surprisingly, as Tamczy.

Tamchy is located on the north shore of Lake Issyk Kul

Issyk Kul

Issyk Kul is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. Although it is surrounded by snow-capped peaks, it never freezes; hence its name, which means "hot...

, between Balykchy

Balykchy

Balykchy is a town with a population about 40,000 people located at the western end of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, at and an elevation of about 1,900 metres...

 and Cholpon Ata on highway A363. To the west is Kosh Kol.

Natural environment

The village stretches for a couple kilometers along the shore of a bay formed by promontories at Kosh Kol (to the west) and Choktal

Choktal

Choktal is a village in the Issyk Kul District of the Issyk Kul Province of Kyrgyzstan. It is located on the northern shore of Lake Issyk Kul between Tamchy and Cholpon Ata....

 (to the east). A gently raising desert plain stretches for more than ten kilometers north of the village, towards the foothills of the mountain range that separates Issyk Kul basin from the Kemin

Kemin

Kemin is a urban-type settlement in northeastern Kyrgyzstan, the capital of Kemin District of Chui Province. It is located in about 95 km eastward of Bishkek on the left bank of Chu River in Chuy Valley. Kemin was established in 1912....

 Valley farther north. Remote snow-covered mountain tops can be seen from the village, and, on a clear day, one can see the Tian Shan

Tian Shan

The Tian Shan , also spelled Tien Shan, is a large mountain system located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Victory Peak , ....

 mountains across the lake to the south.

A creek flows from the mountains to the shore, bringing fresh water to the village. Along much of its course, the creek is artificially rerouted (and thus locally known as an aryk

Aryk

An aryk is a term widely used for a irrigation canal throughout Central Asia, where in most areas agriculture is impossible without some measure of artificial irrigation....

) to run not along the bottom of ravines and gulches, but on a high ground, so that it is possible to divert water from it for irrigation. However, as the amount of water in the creek is quite limited, only a few square kilometers of land around the village is actually irrigated. Village houses are often surrounded by orchards, apples and walnuts being local favorites.

Tamchy is one of the popular family beach vacation destinations on Issyk Kul's north shore. Much less developed and more low-key than Cholpon Ata, it is popular with both the Bishkek

Bishkek

Bishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...

 middle class and budget travellers from as far away as central Russia and Siberia. Unlike its western neighbor, Kosh Kol, Tamchy was spared the large-scale resort development during the Soviet era, and its hospitality industry consists mostly of smaller, family-run guesthouses.

Transportation

Tamchy is located on the highway that runs along the north shore of Issyk Kul

Issyk Kul

Issyk Kul is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. Although it is surrounded by snow-capped peaks, it never freezes; hence its name, which means "hot...

, and is served by passenger vans

Marshrutka

Marshrutka , from marshrutnoye taksi is a share taxi in the CIS countries, the Baltic states, and Bulgaria. Marshrutnoye taksi literally means routed taxicab...

 and buses operating on Bishkek

Bishkek

Bishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...

-Balykchy-Cholpon Ata-Karakol

Karakol

Karakol , formerly Przhevalsk, is fourth largest city in Kyrgyzstan, near the eastern tip of Issyk Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan, about from the Kyrgyzstan-China border and from the capital Bishkek. It is the administrative capital of Issyk Kul Province...

 route.

The Tamchy Airport

Tamchy Airport

Tamchy Airport is an airport serving Tamchy, a city in the Issyk Kul District of the Issyk Kul Province in Kyrgyzstan. It has no instrument landing facilities and operates only during daylight hours....

, the largest on the lake, is located approximately 5 kilometers to the east of the village. In 2006 plans were announced for a major upgrade.