Przhevalsk Monument and Museum and Hippodrome Przhevalsk Monument and Museum (Музей
Пржевальского) The Przhevalsk Museum, park and memorial complex is situated 9km from Karakol on a ridge overlooking Lake Issyk-Kul. Dedicated to the 19th Russian explorer N.M. Przhevalsk, it displays exhibits in Russian and English relating to his Central Asian, Tibetan and Chinese expeditions. Also on display are an enormous globe, a wall-sized
relief map of Central Asia, stuffed examples of fauna that Przhevalsk is credited with discovering (including Przhevalsky's horse) and a good collection of his documents and personal belongings. The museum is surrounded by a park of pretty poplar, oak and apple trees (some of which the director has unfortunately begun to chop down and sell). Part of the park has been cleared
to make room for the graves of important local Kyrgyz people, an example of how the Kyrgyz are attempting to reconcile their colonial history with the political climate of today. The museum, opened in 1957, was itself was built on a village graveyard, so this could also be seen as an example of history coming full circle. The Przhevalsk memorial, a large granite structure topped
by a huge eagle, overlooks the lake and is just a stones throw from the explorer's simple grave. Nearby, lies a tiny Orthodox funerary chapel, where Przhevalsk's body lay after his death. The museum is open daily from 9am-5pm. Entrance costs 1$ for foreign visitors. Exhibits labelled in Russian and English. Turkestan city tours of Karakol include a visit
to the Przhevalsk Museum. Hippodrome (Ипподром) Karakol's hippodrome was the brainchild of horse-lover V. Pyanovskii (1872-1922). In the days before the revolution, Pyanovskii opened Przhevalsk's earliest stud farm and organized a racing society for local high society. With nowhere to race,
the society threw its energies into creating Karakol's hippodrome - the very first in Central Asia. The hippodrome is 3km south of Central Karakol and Pyanovskii's grave can be seen next to the finishing post. These days, fewer and fewer people have the luxury of being able to keep racehorses and the hippodrome is only used on major holidays and religious
festivals. If you can contrive to be in Karakol on Nooruz (Muslim New Year, usually 21st March) then you may be able to catch a photogenic spectacle of races and other traditional horseback sports. Against the backdrop of the Central Tien Shan mountains, these make for an atmospheric display and are well worth seeing.
Swarms of teenagers race a ragtag band of sturdy Kyrgyz mountain ponies bareback on two-lap sprints or long distance marathons of up to 30km. From a distance, ponies seem to glide serenely without exertion through the following trotting races. Traditional games include
kiz kumay, or 'kiss the girl'. A young man chases a horseback girl in traditional dress at a gallop. The man must try to kiss her but receives a wallop from her whip if he fails. These are no idle pastimes; the winner can gain up to 10,000 som (approx $208). In the past,
prizes have included a Volga car (worth approx $7,000). Karakol's History
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