Sarkent National Park

The National Park Sarkent located in the Lyailak district of the Batken region, 141 km southwest of the city of Batken. The park сovers 40 000 hectares and is the youngest state park in Kyrgyzstan, created in 2009 to preserve unique natural complexes. The park is located next to Tajikistan and about 62,5 km of the park territory is bordered by the Ganchinsky district of Tajikistan to the south of the park. There several legends about the name of the area with one of them describing the following: “Sarkent” is the ancient name of the village in the mountain, where ancestors lived. Later, people migrated to the plain areas, however, the name remained. Today in the area still has some Mazars and small houses and barnyards can be found.

There are rare species of animals listed in the Red Book, such as brown bear, snow leopard, lynx, golden eagle and saker, living in Sarkent. The main forest forming species is juniper, with a forested area of 9 491 hectares. Furthermore, the territory of the area of the natural park is very diverse, in the floodplains of the rivers, there grows a natural forest of birch and poplar, willow and hawthorn, as well as a lot of bushes like mountain ash, sea buckthorn, barberry, rosehip, almond, etc. In addition, there are five lakes in the park which are called the Aykol, Zhashylkol, Sutkol, Boyrokkol, Zhashkol as well as many alpine cliffs and small and large caves. 

Due to the location, at the edge of Kyrgyzstan, the number of tourists visiting Sarkent national park is very limited. Local authorities attempt to develop tourism in the area since there is the potential to attract those who visit Khujand. However, the issues are the border and customs that also create extra costs for foreign tourists.