Russian archaeologists have unearthed new evidence of a lost Silk Road settlement, including a series of medieval structures and the remains of a “necropolis” preserved beneath the waters of the world’s eighth-deepest lake.
Lake Issyk-Kul, also the world’s 11th-largest lake by volume, is located in the western Tianshan Mountains, which separate remote eastern Kyrgyzstan from Kazakhstan. Beneath the lake’s northwestern waters, researchers have found structural remains, ceramics, and what they characterize as a rapidly eroding “Muslim necropolis” preserved within Issyk-Kul’s waters.
The discoveries, made in the Autumn of this year, were made by an international team with the Russian Geographical Society, in cooperation with the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and the National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan.
Plunging into the massive lake’s waters, archaeologists explored a series of four submerged sites they say are linked to the Toru-Aygyr complex, recognized as a significant commercial hub along the famous Silk Road, the ancient caravan route that once linked central China with the Mediterranean.
The researchers behind the discovery now say their findings offer the strongest evidence yet that a medieval city of considerable size once existed on the shoreline of the ancient lake, before portions of it were submerged during a massive earthquake that struck the area in the 15th century.
Discoveries Beneath the Waters of Issyk-Kul
Surveys were conducted of four shallow areas of the lake, where archaeologists worked at depths of up to four meters. Several structural remains were documented at the first of these locations, composed of baked brick that revealed fragments of a building that appears to have been associated with social or religious activity.
Researchers believe one likely interpretation is that the building had been either a mosque, a bathhouse, or possibly an Islamic place of instruction known as a madrasa. Additionally, a millstone was discovered among the ruins, suggesting that grains were once processed at the site. Remnants of timber found at the site are currently being studied with hopes of using tree-ring dating, known as dendrochronology, to determine the age of the structural remains.
An Abandoned Silk Road Settlement
Valery Kolchenko, who led the expedition on behalf of the Kyrgyz Academy of Sciences, said the discoveries at the site reveal an important commercial center on a major Silk Road route.
Curiously, the evidence the researchers have collected at the site suggests that, even before the settlement’s destruction in the 15th century, its residents had abandoned the once-thriving commercial hub.
“According to our assessment, at the time of the disaster, the residents had already left the settlement,” Kolchenko said in a statement, comparing the discovery to the famous tragedy of Pompeii, adding that “After the earthquake disaster, the region’s population changed drastically, and the rich medieval settlement civilization ceased to exist.”
Following the departure of the original inhabitants, nomadic people from nearby began to live in the area, replacing the earlier urban community.
Exploring a Submerged Medieval “Necropolis”
The second site the researchers explored revealed a remarkable underwater discovery: the remains of a 13th–14th-century Muslim necropolis, which is steadily eroding as the lake’s waves move.
Covering roughly 300 by 200 meters, the necropolis site contains burials oriented according to Islamic tradition, with the bodies facing north. Among the remains the team discovered were those of a man and a woman, which, unlike the nearby eroding structure, were well preserved within the lake’s waters.
Corroborating their on-site discoveries, the researchers consulted historical records originating in China, which provided additional context.
Maksim Menshikov, the expedition co-leader, explained that the region changed hands politically and religiously over the centuries, passing from the Turkic Kara-Khanid State to the spread of Islam under the Golden Horde. Throughout the changing of hands, various forms of trade and cultural exchange played a significant role in shaping the religious landscape. Over time, nomadic groups in the region, who had long-held traditions of their own, often developed syncretic belief systems that combined elements of their pagan heritage with Islam.
Medieval Discoveries Surface
At the third site the team investigated, medieval ceramics and a large, intact earthenware storage vessel known as a khum were found. Still embedded within the lakebed, the khum is currently slated for recovery in the next excavation season. Meanwhile, a trio of burials discovered nearby, which differed from others found at the site, suggests an association with an earlier phase of occupation.
Finally, at the fourth survey location on the site’s western edge, circular and rectangular structures were revealed, which the team used as ideal locations for drilling underwater core samples that have preserved the lakebed’s sediments for long periods. These sediment cores, the team says, will provide additional data to help reconstruct the settlement’s development stages and its environmental history.
Additionally, the team deployed a series of advanced underwater drones produced by Trionix Lab, which helped them map the sunken structural remains with high accuracy, creating a digital foundation for future monitoring of the site and its conservation.
Unearthing the Secret History of the Silk Road
Menshikov says the section of the Silk Road he and his colleagues have studied was once under the control of the Karakhanids, a Turkic khanate that ruled parts of Central Asia between the 9th and early 13th centuries.
“The Chinese considered this territory a zone of their interests,” Menshikov says, “but they could not control it.” Still, he adds, the researchers found references to it in the Chinese historical sources they studied.
“This gives us hope to correlate historical materials with the results of our archaeological excavations,” Menshikov says. “In the 13th century, under the influence of the Golden Horde, Islam became widespread in the region.”
“Probably, the necropolis that we discovered at the bottom of the lake is connected with this period,” he adds.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. A longtime reporter on science, defense, and technology with a focus on space and astronomy, he can be reached at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow him on X @MicahHanks, and at micahhanks.com.