Lake · Tajikistan
Iskanderkul
Lake in Tajikistan
- Area
- 3.2km²
- Max depth
- 72m
- Average depth
- 24m
- Elevation
- 2,192m a.s.l.
- Shoreline
- 10km
- Volume
- 0.078km³
Iskanderkul is a lake in Tajikistan. It covers 3.2 km². On average it is 24 m deep, and 72 m at its deepest point. Its surface lies 2,192 m above sea level.
Plan your visit
Stay, sail and get there
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The water
How warm is Iskanderkul?
The water is warmest in July, around 17 °C at the surface, and coldest in January, around 0 °C. Even at its warmest, the surface stays below 17 °C on average: this is cold water.
It does not normally freeze in winter.
On the shore, afternoons reach 20 °C on average in July and -8 °C in January. The driest month is August (2 mm of rain), the wettest March (57 mm).
Average surface temperature measured by the Landsat 8 satellite between 2013 and 2021 at the point furthest from the shore (94 readings). Shallow bays and beaches are often warmer.
From above
The whole lake from space
Month by month
The year at the lake, month by month
Not a forecast: these are averages over many years. Water is the 2013–2021 average; air, rain, sun and wind are the 1991–2020 average.
Water: 2013–2021 averageClimate: 1991–2020 average
| Month | Water°C | Water high°C | Air high°C | Air low°C | Rainmm | Rainy daysdays | Sunh/day | Windkm/h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 1 | -8 | -17 | 34 | 8 | 5.0 | 8 |
| February | 1 | 2 | -6 | -16 | 51 | 10 | 5.5 | 8 |
| March | 4 | 6 | -1 | -10 | 57 | 11 | 6.3 | 8 |
| April | 8 | 10 | 6 | -4 | 54 | 9 | 7.1 | 8 |
| May | 12 | 14 | 12 | 1 | 36 | 8 | 8.9 | 8 |
| June | 16 | 16 | 17 | 4 | 14 | 3 | 11.1 | 8 |
| July | 17 | 17 | 20 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 11.9 | 8 |
| August | 16 | 16 | 20 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 11.4 | 8 |
| September | 14 | 15 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 10.4 | 8 |
| October | 10 | 12 | 7 | -3 | 16 | 3 | 7.8 | 8 |
| November | 6 | 8 | 0 | -9 | 35 | 6 | 5.0 | 8 |
| December | 3 | 4 | -6 | -15 | 34 | 7 | 4.7 | 8 |
Water: LakeTEMP (Landsat 8, 2013–2021). Air, rain, sun and wind: NASA POWER, 1991–2020 averages. A rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. Sunshine hours are derived from measured solar radiation.
Size & depth
How big, how deep
- On average, water stays in the lake for about 4 months before flowing out.
- Its catchment drains 742 km² of land.
- About 6.9 m³ of water flow out every second, on average.
Around the shore
What's around Iskanderkul
Counted within 1.5 km of the shoreline in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit.
- —beaches and swimming spots
- 3campsites
Campsite Iskanderkul, Camping sauvage
- —boat hire and water-sport clubs
- —marinas and slipways
- —ferry piers
- 5viewpoints
Cave Alexander the Great
- 8hotels, B&Bs and chalets
Abrar, Shezok, Tajik Sodirot Bank Tourist Base, Zumrad Tourism Center, Iskandarkul Guest House and 3 more
- —fishing spots
- 2restaurants and cafés
Nearest airport with scheduled flights: Dushanbe International Airport (DYU), 71 km in a straight line.
OpenStreetMap is built by volunteers: when a number is low, it may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
Recent years
How each month compared
Afternoon high on the shore. The first row is the reference, the 1991–2020 average in °C; the years below show the difference from it: warmer in orange, cooler in blue.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991–2020 average | -7.7 | -6.1 | -0.7 | 6.0 | 11.9 | 17.1 | 20.2 | 19.6 | 14.8 | 7.2 | -0.3 | -5.7 |
| 2020 | −1.4 | +2.0 | +0.6 | −0.4 | −0.7 | −0.9 | −2.1 | −0.9 | −1.8 | −1.2 | −2.0 | −1.6 |
| 2021 | +2.4 | +3.2 | −0.5 | +0.7 | +0.4 | +1.9 | +0.5 | −0.9 | +3.5 | −1.0 | +0.6 | +2.7 |
| 2022 | +0.8 | −0.1 | +0.6 | +4.0 | +0.1 | −0.8 | +2.2 | −1.6 | +2.4 | ±0.0 | −2.0 | −0.8 |
| 2023 | −1.9 | +1.0 | +2.9 | +1.1 | −0.1 | +2.2 | +0.8 | −0.2 | +0.2 | +0.2 | +3.8 | +3.9 |
| 2024 | +3.2 | −0.6 | −1.8 | −2.7 | −0.7 | −1.1 | −1.4 | +0.1 | +0.1 | −0.2 | +0.2 | −2.4 |
| 2025 | +0.1 | −0.2 | −1.0 | +2.4 | +2.9 | +0.9 | +1.8 | +1.7 | +1.4 | +2.1 | +3.5 | +2.2 |
+1 warmer than usual −1 cooler than usual
Nearby
More lakes nearby
Tajikistan430 km² · 209 km away27°maxShardara Reservoir
Kazakhstan745 km² · 229 km away28°maxTuyabuguz Reservoir
Uzbekistan13.5 km² · 226 km away28°maxAydar LakeUzbekistan2,742 km² · 276 km away27°maxCharvak LakeUzbekistan25.9 km² · 316 km away24°maxZeid reservoir
Turkmenistan18.8 km² · 325 km away28°maxAbout these numbers
| Outline, area, depth, volume | HydroLAKES v1.0 (Messager et al. 2016) · CC BY 4.0 |
|---|---|
| Water temperature and ice | LakeTEMP v1 (Korver et al. 2024), Landsat 8 2013–2021 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Air, rain, sun, wind | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 · public domain |
| Names and description | Wikidata (Q2478596) · CC0 |
| Around the shore | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
