Known as Toru-Aygyr, this was once an important stopover on the Silk Road — until it was submerged during an earthquake in the 15th century.
Elizaveta Romashkina/Russian Academy of SciencesArchaeologists found numerous pieces of medieval ceramics at the sunken city found in Lake Issyk-Kul.
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a medieval city submerged beneath the surface of Lake Issyk-Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan.
The most recent expeditions began in the fall of 2025, focusing on the flooded Toru-Aygyr complex in the northwestern part of the lake. There, archaeologists found a medieval necropolis, large ceramic vessels, and parts of a building made of baked bricks, which may have been a mosque or a bathhouse.
Lake Issyk-Kul, which is the eighth deepest lake in the world, once sat along the Silk Road, and this now-sunken city was likely once an important stop along the route. However, at the beginning of the 15th century, a large earthquake caused the city to sink into the lake, where its remains sit to this day.
The Sunken Remains Of A Medieval City Found In Kyrgyzstan’s Lake Issyk-Kul
Russian Academy of SciencesArchaeologists uncovered the remains of multiple structures, including a Muslim necropolis from the 13th or 14th century.
The expedition covered four sections of the lake, at depths ranging from about three feet to 13 feet, according to a statement from the Russian Geographical Society, whose grant funded the project. In the first section, archaeologists found several fire-brick buildings. One included a millstone used for crushing and grinding flour or grits.
They also found a building that was used as either a mosque, a bathhouse, or a madrasa, an Islamic school. Alongside these buildings, archaeologists uncovered several stone structures and wooden beams. The beams are being sent for radiocarbon dating and dendrochronological analysis to determine the age of the materials.
In the second section, archaeologists discovered a 13th- or 14th-century Muslim necropolis, which had been heavily eroded by the lake’s salt water.
“In the 13th century, under the influence of the Golden Horde, Islam became widespread in the region,” said expedition head Maksim Menshikov. “Probably, the necropolis that we discovered at the bottom of the lake is connected with this period.”
Archaeologists also uncovered burials near the necropolis, all carried out in the Islamic tradition with the skeletons pointed north and their faces turned toward the holy Kaaba in Mecca. Two skeletons that were found buried in this fashion, one of a man and one of a woman, have been recovered and will undergo comprehensive analysis.
The third section of the lake that was explored held several medieval ceramics, while the fourth section contained round and rectangular structures made of mudbrick.
Uncovering The History Of The Settlement That Once Stood Along Lake Issyk-Kul
Denis Davydov/Russian Academy of SciencesArchaeologists from the Lake Issyk-Kul expedition: Ekaterina Lameykina (in pink T-shirt) and Kristina Guseynova (middle), with diver Elizaveta Romashkina.
This medieval city was located along the Silk Road, an important route for travelers and traders from East Asia to Europe for hundreds of years during this period. And this newly-explored site likely served as an important stop for traders on their way to or from China.
“The site we are studying was a city or a major trading hub on a key section of the Silk Road,” Valery Kolchenko, researcher at the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, told Heritage Daily.
In order to learn more about the historical context of the city, researchers analyzed medieval documents in addition to carrying out their underwater expeditions.
For one, the evidence shows that, in the 10th century, a Turkic dynasty called the Kara-Khanid State began to take power in the region.
“People here practiced various religions: pagan Tengrianism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity,” Menshikov explained. “The ruling elite often turned to Islam throughout their rule, but this religion became widespread in Central Asia only in the 13th century. Prior to that, Islam was primarily the religion of the nobility and the population involved in active economic activity.”
However, any prosperity that this city enjoyed was ultimately brought to a sudden end in the 15th century, when a devastating earthquake caused it to sink into the waters of Lake Issyk-Kul.
“After the earthquake disaster, the region’s population changed drastically,” Kolchenko said, “and the rich medieval settlement civilization ceased to exist.”
After reading about the remains of the medieval city beneath Lake Issyk-Kul, see the massive 6th-century statue found by a potato farmer in Kyrgyzstan. Then, learn about the mammoth remains that workers found in the Issyk-Kul region.
