A hundred and eighty kilometres of brackish lake at sixteen hundred metres, held between two snow-covered ranges of the Tien Shan and deep enough never to freeze — the name means warm lake. The north shore has sand beaches and faded Soviet resorts; the south is almost empty and leads into red canyons and valleys where herders still put up yurts each summer. From the water's edge you look straight at six-thousand-metre peaks, and that contrast is what stays with you.