This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The sun had barely risen, but diving volunteer Elizaveta Bodrova was already raring to plunge into the cold waters of Lake Issyk-Kul, where the ruins of a once-thriving city have lain submerged for centuries. The settlement lies on an ancient trading route between China and Europe, but little is known about its history or how it came to be flooded beneath Kyrgyzstan's largest lake an estimated 800 years ago.
Together with a team of around 20 scientists, Bodrova is helping uncover its past, with findings that could shape our understanding of the history of Central Asia and beyond. "The visibility isn't very good today, but I hope we'll still be able to find the boundary of the settlement," the 42-year-old told with a smile, before hopping off a motorboat into the depths below. The project, which began in 2024 and is funded by the Russian Academy of Sciences, is the first major exploration of the site since it was rediscovered in the 19th century.
The settlement is located at the heart of what was once the Silk Road, a trading route that linked China to the Mediterranean from the second century B.C. until the mid-15th century. Although often associated with nomads, what is now Kyrgyzstan has been inhabited by multiple civilizations throughout its history, among them Turkic dynasties that traded between Europe and China. "This is actually a blind spot in history, even though it is right in the center of Central Asia," expedition director Maxim Menshikov, who was steering the boat, said of the ruins.
"It is a very important chapter in the history of humankind, because it was the period that linked East and West during the Middle Ages. The Silk Road is not merely the history of a single region; it is the history of Eurasia as a whole," he added. The section of the Silk Road that passed through the settlement during its existence is thought to have been under the control of the Karakhanids, a Turkic dynasty that controlled much of Central Asia from the ninth to early 13th centuries.
Researchers believe the city, whose name and population are not known, may have covered up to five square kilometers (nearly two square miles). Accurately dating the remains has been difficult. But traces of two cemeteries discovered at the site suggest they were built during the early Islamization of the region.
Among the discovered remains was a decorated public building, possibly a mosque, public bath or religious school. After several hours scouring the lakebed, the divers returned to dry land with their spoils: the remains of animal bones and pottery shards. "The bones that have been found will enable archaeologists to determine their diet and the age of the remains, as well as the diet of the people who lived in this region," said Viktor Pozdnyakov, a diver and laboratory assistant on the expedition team.
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