A legend about Issyk- Kul

Issyk-Kul Lake, called " the pearl of Kyrgyzstan", is a sacred place for Kyrgyz people. There are a lot of legends connected with Issyk-Kul.One of the legends says that once upon a time there lived a cruel khan. Comming back home from his hunt, he saw a girl of one poor man, and he was amazed by her incomparable beauty. Coming to his palace, the khan couldn't forget the girl, and got excited to remember her again and again. He ordered his servants to kidnap the girl from her village and bring her to his palace.

But the girl loved a young man. Before leaving for distant lands, he put his ring on the girl's finger and asked her not to remove it until he came back." It will protect you from any misfortune!" the young msn said. Every day the girl looked forward to exciting news about her young man.

So the girl rejected the Khan's love saying: " I love another man and cannot be a wife of the khan!" The girl was terrified and escaped to the mountains to hide herself from the khan's servants. Suddenly she found out that there wasn't a ring on her finger. The girl came back to the village to look for the ring, but the khan's servants caught her and took her to his palace.The khan kept her in the fortress and tried to persuade her to become his wife. She thought that herblife without her young man would be boring and meaningless. She didn't want to become his wife and threw herself out of the window. The khan got punishment for his evil-doings. Mountain water rushed down to the valley where was his palace and the whole valley disappeared under the lake. And at this palace the lake formed