Balykchy is a town with a population of 42,380 people (2009 Census) located at the western end of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, at and an elevation of about 1,900 metres. A major industrial and transport centre (wool and crop processing, lake shipping, rail terminal, and road junction) during the Soviet era, it lost most of its economic base after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the closure of virtually all of its industrial facilities.