However, after Iskander Zulkarnain visited these lands, the name Iskan-dara was changed to Iskanderkul due to the obvious similarity. There may be some debate on this topic, but there is no clear evidence, only myths and legends. There are many legends associated with this lake, not all of them about Alexander the Great. I will tell you about the two most famous legends related to Alexander and Lake Iskanderkul, which is located in the Fann Mountains of Tajikistan.
The first legend about the emergence of Lake Iskanderkul goes as follows: when Alexander the Great conquered Bactria and Sogdiana, there was resistance led by the Sogdian Spitamenes. Once, the troops of Spitamenes surrounded the Macedonian garrison in the capital of Sogdiana, Marakanda (Samarkand), and Alexander the Great sent his military leaders with their armies to help. However, Alexander's commanders suffered a devastating defeat by Spitamenes, and this battle is known in history as the Battle of the Polytimetus (modern-day Zeravshan River). Interestingly, this was the only victory over Alexander the Great's armies during his entire campaign in the East. After this, Alexander had to suppress uprisings in Sogdiana and Bactria for three years. Only his marriage to a local girl named Roxana allowed him to win the support of the local nobility. But let's return to the legend. Alexander decided to hide the history of this defeat and threatened the few survivors who arrived from the battlefield with execution for spreading the word about what happened. He himself led a squad of elite warriors in pursuit of Spitamenes. In the pursuit of Spitamenes, Alexander and his squad of the best warriors penetrated into the valley where Lake Iskanderkul is now located. There was either a fortified city or a fortress there, but the gates were not opened, and the defenders refused to cooperate. Enraged, Alexander did not want to waste time on a siege and ordered his warriors to build an embankment dam and flood the fortress along with its defenders. After a few days, the water rose and formed a large lake, which flooded the fortress. However, Spitamenes was not caught. Then Alexander sent an ultimatum to the Sogdians, stating that if they did not surrender Spitamenes to him, he would destroy the dam and the wave would wash away all the villages downstream. The elders gathered, and betrayal occurred, as they gave Spitamenes' location to Alexander. Alexander's warriors surrounded the group, but still, the heavily wounded Spitamenes and a handful of his soldiers managed to flee to the deserted Mashkevat gorge. Alexander's warriors pursued them, and in this gorge, Spitamenes and the remaining people barricaded themselves in an impregnable cave, where they all perished over time from hunger and wounds, but did not surrender. And to this day, the dried-up body of the saint Khodja Iskhak is in the same cave, which the locals consider to be Spitamenes.
The second legend about Bucephalus (Bucephalus), Alexander the Great's horse, a gift from his father Philip II. The father gave the horse to him after 10-year-old Alexander was able to tame him, something that even experienced riders could not do before. Plutarch describes the taming of Bucephalus, where he writes that Philip even shed tears of joy, kissed Alexander when he dismounted from the horse, and said, "My son, find a kingdom worthy of yourself, for Macedonia is too small for you!" Alexander named the horse Bucephalus (Ox-Head) and believed that the horse brought him luck. During his Indian campaign, his path led through mountain passes, passing by a lake where the hot-headed horse drank cold water from the lake and fell ill. But the army could not wait long for the horse to recover. Then Alexander left grooms and a small group of warriors to watch over and care for the horse while he rode on another horse and continued his journey. Time passed, the horse recovered and was about to set off, but suddenly Bucephalus stopped allowing people near him, stopped eating and drinking. After some time, one day, he suddenly ran up to a cape, raised his head up and neighed so loudly that the neigh echoed like thunder over the lake. He ran up and jumped off the cliff into the cold water of the lake and immediately sank to the bottom. It is said that Bucephalus went to the bottom, sensing the death of his master. And now, on the day of the fourteenth full moon, in the light of the moon, a white-maned horse emerges from the lake, grazes in the meadows, and plays until morning. And at dawn, it runs up and jumps off the cliff again.
The name of the cave near the stream on the western shore of the lake, called Bucephalus' stable, remains from this legend. The contradiction with the first legend is that it turns out Alexander approached the lake, and it already existed, and his soldiers did not build a dam. Well, one can also assume that he was at the lake several times, first when he was chasing Spitamenes, and then when he left the horse. But of course, all this is legends, and how it actually happened can only be known from Alexander the Great himself. But the fact that Alexander was at this lake is quite plausible, according to tradition, he came here through the Ahbasher pass from the west. This is evidenced by numerous toponyms associated with the name of the Greek commander, namely, Lake Iskanderkul, the village of Zulkarnay, the hamlet of Iskander, the Iskander canal, the Dash ti-Iskander steppe, and of course Alexandria Eschate (the furthest), an ancient city, the last of the Alexandrias built by Alexander the Great throughout his empire. Now, the modern city of Khujand stands on the site of Alexandria Eschate.
Most of the beks of the Upper Zeravshan principalities considered themselves direct descendants of Alexander the Great, also known as Iskander Zulkarnain. There is even a fact that "One Matchinsky bek sent a petition to the imperial governor in Samarkand, in which he emphasized that as a descendant of Alexander the Great, he has the right to all kingdoms and lands and demanded that he be given Pendjikent, which voluntarily joined Russian Turkestan." Of course, direct relationship is unlikely, but such claims are not entirely unfounded. The thing is that in addition to the main backbone of Alexander's army, consisting of Greeks and mercenaries, there were also "sons of Alexander." He introduced such a practice that from the defeated peoples, he took very young boys, adolescents, who were brought up and trained as Greeks, and made detachments out of them. For trust and loyalty, he called them all his sons, despite the dissatisfaction of the Greek composition of the army, who considered this a barbaric custom because all Greeks were equal and easily communicated even with Alexander. Accordingly, if it was necessary to leave a governor with a garrison somewhere, he left these most loyal "sons" of his, because the Greeks themselves did not really want to stay anywhere, even in conquered territories. Hence the direct "descendants" of Alexander the Great.
Lake Iskanderkul is first mentioned in a literary monument of the 16th century, "Babur-name," by the author and former ruler of Fergana Shah-Babur, who was expelled by Shaybani-Khan. During his wanderings, he visited the lake. Here is an excerpt from it: "After hundreds of hardships and sufferings, we passed high narrow passes and reached the outskirts of Fana. Among the mountains of Fana lies a large lake. This beautiful lake is about one sher in circumference. It is not devoid of originality." As it is known, Shah-Babur later reached India, where he stayed and founded the Mughal Empire. Alexander the Great also visited the lake during his Indian campaign. That is, everyone who went to India passed through Iskanderkul. This is what I mean, I visited Iskanderkul, now it will be logical to follow the path of the Greats. Again, Goa is our everything, Varanasi, the Taj Mahal, Kama Sutra... or is the last one not a place?
The first official or rather scientific description of the lake, its surroundings, flora and fauna belongs to the Russian explorer A.P. Fedchenko, who visited the lake as part of the expedition of General Abramov in 1870. After that, many different expeditions visited Lake Iskanderkul, both before and after the October Revolution. Even a simple listing of surnames would take up a lot of space, which is beyond the scope of my blog. It should be noted, however, that since 1929, the Iskanderkul High Mountain Complex Station has been operating on the lake. This was the first high-altitude complex station in Central Asia for studying the climate and observing the regime of mountain rivers, and the history of this meteorological station is full of tragedy and stories of extraordinary courage of its first employees, led by the hero of the civil war V.M. Ionov. The point is that until then, these were completely deserted places visited only by shepherds and rare expeditions.
In 1936, the tourist development of the lake surroundings, that is, the Fann Mountains, began. The first tourist group led by Nemitsky passed through the Voru River valley to Archamaidan and then over the Dukdon Pass. In the same year, on the day of the athlete, a group of tourists from Dushanbe under the guidance of mountaineering instructor Serdcev went to Lake Iskanderkul through the Mura Pass. In 1937, Kazakova and Mukhin's groups made the first attempts to climb the summit of Bolshaya Ganza (5306 m). Kazakova's group tried to storm Bolshaya Ganza from the side of Lake Iskanderkul, but not finding a way, made the first ascent of one of the neighboring peaks, naming it the Peak of "Red Dawns" (4315 m). This same group climbed one of the peaks in the Chimgan area, which they named Energy (5120 m). Mukhin's group successfully climbed Bolshaya Ganza, finding an approach from the Dzhidzhik Pass. In conclusion, Kazakova and Mukhin's groups joined forces and made the first ascent of the highest peak in the Fann Mountains - Chimgan (5489 m). These were the first steps, and then, as they say, it started rolling. The Fann Mountains became simply a paradise for mountain tourists and climbers, due to the abundance of interesting routes, beautiful lakes, passes, and peaks of different levels of difficulty, and stable dry weather. And all of this with relatively good transport accessibility.
You can take a look at Iskanderkul in this photo review: a photo of Iskanderkul lake.
