Although it is located at a lofty elevation of 1,607 metres (5,272 ft) and subject to severe cold during winter, it rarely freezes over due to high salinity, hence its name, which in the Kyrgyz language means "warm lake".

These fell on hard times after the break-up of the USSR, but now hotel complexes are being refurbished and simple private bed-and-breakfast rentals are being established for a new generation of health and leisure visitors.

[citation needed] The city of Karakol (formerly Przhevalsk, after the Russian explorer Przhevalsky, who died there) is the administrative seat of Issyk-Kul Region of Kyrgyzstan.

[citation needed] Issyk-Kul Lake was a stopover on the Silk Road, a land route for travelers from the Far East to Europe.

[citation needed] Many historians believe that the lake was the point of origin for the Black Death that plagued Europe and Asia during the early and mid-14th century.

[13] In 2022, researchers reported on the analysis of preserved genetic material from seven individuals buried in two cemeteries near Issyk-Kul and determined that the Black Death was present there in 1338 or 1339.

[14] The plague first infected people in a small, nearby settlement of traders eight years before it devastated Eurasia, killing 60 percent of the population, having traveled along trade routes.

[15] The lake's status as a byway for travelers allowed the plague to spread across these continents via medieval merchants who unknowingly carried infested vermin along with them.

Articles identified as the world's oldest extant coins were found underwater, with gold wire rings used as small change and a large hexahedral goldpiece.

At least four commercially targeted endemic fish species are sufficiently threatened to be included in the Red Book of the Kyrgyz Republic — Schmidt's dace (Leuciscus schmidti), Issyk-Kul dace (Leuciscus bergi), Ili marinka (Schizothorax pseudoaksaiensis issykkulensis), and sheer or naked osman (Gymnodiptychus dybowskii).

Five other indigenous species — Issyk-kul minnow (Phoxinus issykkulensis), Issykul gudgeon (Gobio gobio latus), spotted thicklip loach (Triplophysa strauchii ulachilicus), grey stone loach (Triplophysa dorsalis), asp (Leuciscus aspius iblioides) — are almost certainly threatened as bycatch or are indirectly impacted by fishing activity and changes to the ecological structure and balance of the lake's fish population.

[24] In March 2008, Kyrgyz newspapers reported that 866 hectares (2,140 acres) around the Karabulan Peninsula on the lake would be leased for an indefinite period to the Russian Navy, which is planning to establish new naval testing facilities as part of the 2007 bilateral Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation, Mutual Help, and Protection of Secret Materials.