Lake Kaindy — the forest that drowned standing up

Q: What trees are in Lake Kaindy?

The drowned trunks in Lake Kaindy are Schrenk’s spruce ( Picea schrenkiana ), according to Wikipedia, the same species that forests the surrounding slopes of the Tian Shan. The Kazakh name of the lake, Qaiyndy, is glossed by Wikipedia as “birch tree lake”.

Where: Kolsai Lakes National Park
Almaty Region, Kazakhstan
Coordinates: 42.9875° N
78.4639° E
Formed: January 1911
(earthquake landslide)
Size: About 400 m long, nearly 30 m deep
(Wikipedia)
Altitude: About 2,000 m (Wikipedia)
about 1,900 m (Visit Almaty)
From Almaty: 288 km by road
(Visit Almaty)
Advisory: Kazakhstan Level 1

From Tally’s diary

A bumpy track up a gorge from the steppe, past a felt tent selling tea and a horseman offering rides. Dark spruces stood on the slopes like furled umbrellas. At the top, the gorge held a pool the colour of a cold jewel, and pale trunks rose from it: the tops of a forest, still upright underneath. I gave up on words and drew them, badly, for an hour.

The short answer

Lake Kaindy is a small mountain lake in Kolsai Lakes National Park, in the Almaty Region of south-east Kazakhstan, on the northern slopes of the Tian Shan. Wikipedia gives it as about 400 metres long and nearly 30 metres deep, at about 2,000 metres above sea level and 129 km east-southeast of Almaty in a straight line; Almaty’s tourist information centre, Visit Almaty, gives about 1,900 metres and a road journey of 288 km. It formed in January 1911, when a strong earthquake brought down a mass of limestone that blocked the gorge, and the river filled the valley behind it. Kazakhstan’s official tourism portal describes the lake’s defining sight as old spruce trunks rising from the middle of the water; Wikipedia identifies the trees as Schrenk’s spruce, Picea schrenkiana. The Kazakh name, Qaiyndy, means “birch tree lake” by Wikipedia’s gloss: a lake named for birches, famous for its spruces.

Why it's worth knowing

Most lakes are older than any record of them. Lake Kaindy has a date. The earthquake that made it struck on 3 January 1911 by Universal Time, early on 4 January by the local clock; Wikipedia calls it the Kebin, or Chon-Kemin, earthquake and gives its magnitude as 8.0. It ruptured about 200 km of faults through the mountain valleys south and east of Almaty, then a small city, and destroyed almost all of the buildings in Almaty. By Wikipedia’s account it killed 452 people, most of them in the landslides it set off.

One of the two largest of those landslides was the Kaindy rock avalanche. Wikipedia records that this mass of limestone buried a group of yurts and killed 38 people. It also dammed the gorge. The river backed up behind the new wall of rock and flooded a stand of spruce forest on the valley floor, and the trees drowned where they grew, upright.

So the trunks are a record of the night the lake began. Above the surface the trees lost their side branches and bark, and the wood weathered white, Wikipedia says. Below it, Kazakhstan’s tourism portal describes the lower branches as remarkably well preserved, kept from sun and wind by the cold mountain water, and Wikipedia adds that the submerged wood is overgrown with algae and other water plants.

The field notes

A chain of lakes made by falling mountains

Kaindy is one of several lakes in this part of the Tian Shan that were made by landslides. Wikipedia’s article on Kolsai Lakes National Park describes the park’s lakes as of landslide-tectonic origin, formed in about 1887 and 1911 on the Kaindy and Kolsay rivers. The three Kolsay lakes lie strung along their river about 11 km west of Kaindy; the lowest, by Wikipedia’s figures, is about a kilometre long and 80 metres deep. The park, established in 2007, covers 161,945 hectares and reaches to within about 10 km of the border with Kyrgyzstan.

A lake that is still changing

The lake has not stayed the size the earthquake made it. Visit Almaty records that its area shrank in the late 1980s after a mudflow passed through. The Kaindy river enters through a rock face about 20 metres high, by Wikipedia’s account, and the water takes its blue-green colour from lime and other minerals in it. The surrounding forest is the same Schrenk’s spruce that stands drowned in the lake, a tree Wikipedia describes as native to the Tian Shan.

Under the ice

The lake freezes in winter, and Wikipedia records it as a site for ice diving and winter trout fishing, the divers going down among the trunks despite the cold. The park’s climate swings widely: Wikipedia gives July temperatures from about 30 °C by day to −5 °C at night.

Turquoise water filling a narrow gorge, pale spruce trunks standing in it from bank to bank, spruce forest and rocky slopes on both sides and a hazy peak at the far end — Lake Kaindy fills the gorge the 1911 landslide dammed, with drowned spruce trunks standing in it from bank to bank.

Photograph: Bok · CC BY-SA 4.0

Looking down through green spruce branches to a blue-green lake in a forested gorge, bare trunks standing in the water and a pale gravel stream entering at the far end — The lake from the slope above, through living Schrenk's spruce, the same species that stands drowned in the water.

Photograph: Guldariya Baimukhanova · CC BY-SA 4.0

Bleached bare trunks standing in dark still water below forested slopes, a heavy grey cloud over the ridge — Storm cloud over the gorge in June, the bleached trunks pale against dark water.

Photograph: Katariyakartikey · CC0 · cropped

Pale bare trunks standing in still water below a snow-covered rock slope, their reflections stretching down the frame — Trunks and their reflections in still water below snowy slopes, November 2022. In winter the lake freezes and divers go down among them.

Photograph: MariSimonova · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped

A snow-dusted spruce gorge with a white frozen shallows in the foreground, dark trunks standing at the lake edge and snow falling — The lake beginning to freeze round the trunks under falling snow, November 2022.

Photograph: MariSimonova · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tally’s list

Come early in the day, while the water is still enough to hold a second forest upside down.
Take the horse for the last stretch if your knees ask, and let its owner choose the pace.
Leave the trunks alone: no climbing, no carving, no leaning out from the bank to touch one.
Bring a spare pencil. The list grows faster at this height, and I have no explanation for it.
Return when the lake has frozen round the trunks, and watch the divers go down through the ice to call on the branches.

The Relic

A drowned spruce. One of the trunks of Schrenk’s spruce that stood on the floor of the Kaindy gorge before January 1911 and are still standing there, in the lake the earthquake made around them. Above the water it is bare and bleached white, stripped of bark and side branches by a century of weather. Below the surface it still has its lower branches, kept by the cold and furred green with algae. It has not moved since the water came.

Tally, in the marginIt came to me halfway down the track what the trunks reminded me of: someone answering the door in a good winter coat and no hat at all, and perfectly composed about it.

Getting there

How to get there. Visit Almaty gives the drive from Almaty as 288 km, about four and a half to five hours, to the village of Saty. About 700–800 metres beyond Saty a track turns into the mountain gorge and crosses a small river twice at fords; the lake is about 11 km from the village, and the last stretch from the track is on foot or on horseback. Check the state of the fords locally before taking an ordinary car up the gorge, and expect to walk. The Kolsay lakes, in the same national park, are about 11 km to the west.

When to go. Summer and early autumn for the walk and the reflections; winter for the ice and the divers. Nights are cold at this altitude even in July.

What to arrange ahead. A driver or tour from Almaty if you do not have a high-clearance vehicle, and a bed in Saty if you want to be at the lake early. Lake Kaindy is inside Kolsai Lakes National Park, a protected area; follow the park’s rules at the gate and the shore.

Safety. The State Department has Kazakhstan at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, describing it as generally a safe destination, with a note that the country regularly floods. The nearby Kyrgyz border is also Level 1 except within 30 km of Tajikistan, far to the south-west. This is earthquake country: the lake itself is the evidence.

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Common questions

Why are there trees in Lake Kaindy?

Lake Kaindy formed in January 1911, when an earthquake set off a limestone landslide that dammed a gorge in Kazakhstan’s Tian Shan. The river flooded a stand of spruce on the valley floor, and the trees drowned standing up. Their bleached trunks still rise from the water; below the surface, Kazakhstan’s tourism portal says, the cold has preserved their lower branches.

When was Lake Kaindy formed?

Lake Kaindy formed after the earthquake of 3 January 1911 (4 January by local time), which Wikipedia calls the Kebin or Chon-Kemin earthquake and gives as magnitude 8.0. It triggered the Kaindy rock avalanche, a mass of limestone that blocked the gorge, and the river filled the valley behind it.

Where is Lake Kaindy?

Lake Kaindy is in Kolsai Lakes National Park, in the Almaty Region of south-east Kazakhstan, on the northern slopes of the Tian Shan. Visit Almaty gives the drive from Almaty as 288 km, about four and a half to five hours, to the village of Saty, about 11 km from the lake.

What trees are in Lake Kaindy?

The drowned trunks in Lake Kaindy are Schrenk’s spruce (Picea schrenkiana), according to Wikipedia, the same species that forests the surrounding slopes of the Tian Shan. The Kazakh name of the lake, Qaiyndy, is glossed by Wikipedia as “birch tree lake”.

Did anyone die when Lake Kaindy formed?

Yes. Wikipedia records that the Kaindy rock avalanche, set off by the earthquake of January 1911, buried a group of yurts and killed 38 people. The earthquake as a whole killed 452 people, most of them in landslides, and destroyed almost every building in Almaty.

How deep is Lake Kaindy?

Wikipedia gives Lake Kaindy as nearly 30 metres deep and about 400 metres long, at about 2,000 metres above sea level. Visit Almaty gives its altitude as about 1,900 metres, and records that the lake’s area shrank after a mudflow in the late 1980s.

Can you visit Lake Kaindy in winter?

Yes. Lake Kaindy freezes in winter, and Wikipedia records it as a site for ice diving and trout fishing in that season. The gorge track from Saty crosses a river twice at fords, so check conditions locally before setting out.

Is Kazakhstan safe to visit?

The U.S. State Department has Kazakhstan at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level, describing it as generally a safe destination and noting that the country regularly experiences flooding (advisory dated 18 August 2026).

Notes on sources. This entry draws on Kazakhstan’s official tourism portal (kazakhstan.travel), reached through its indexed text, for the old spruce trunks rising from the middle of the lake, the description of the lower branches as remarkably well preserved under the cold water, and the lake’s place in Kolsai Lakes National Park; and on Visit Almaty, Almaty’s tourist information centre (visitalmaty.kz), for the formation after a strong earthquake in January 1911 that brought down a mountainside and blocked the river, the altitude of about 1,900 m, the mudflow of the late 1980s that reduced the lake’s area, the 288 km road distance and the four and a half to five hours’ drive, the turn into the gorge 700–800 m from Saty, the two fords, the 11 km from Saty and the approach on foot or on horseback. Wikipedia’s articles on Lake Kaindy, the 1911 Kebin earthquake, Kolsai Lakes National Park and Picea schrenkiana, and the references they cite, supplied the length, depth and altitude of about 2,000 m, the 129 km straight-line distance, the gloss of the name as “birch tree lake”, the limestone landslide and natural dam, the identification of the trees, the white wood above the water and the algae below, the river’s entry through a 20-metre rock face, the blue-green colour, the ice diving and trout fishing, the earthquake’s date and magnitude, the 200 km of ruptured faults, the 452 deaths and the destruction in Almaty, the Kaindy rock avalanche’s burial of a group of yurts and its 38 deaths, the park’s founding year, area, lakes of landslide origin, the Kolsay lakes’ distance and dimensions, the distance to the Kyrgyz border and the July temperature range. The two altitudes are given with their parties because they differ, and the 1911 date is given in both Universal and local time. The earthquake’s deaths are stated in the reference layer only. Travel advisory: the United States has Kazakhstan at Level 1, exercise normal precautions (18 August 2026), with a flooding note and no area warnings; the Kyrgyz Republic is Level 1 with a Level 2 area within 30 km of the Tajik border. Checked 2 October 2026 against the State Department’s advisory feed. Written and fact-checked by SockMonkey. Last reviewed 3 October 2026.