KARAKOL

formerly (18891921, 193991) Przhevalsk, city, eastern Ysyk-kl oblast (province), Kyrgyzstan, at the northern foot of the Terskey-Alatau Mountains at an elevation of 5,807 feet (1,770 m) on the Karakol River. The city was founded in 1869 as a Russian military and administrative outpost; it was renamed for the Russian explorer Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky, who died there in 1888. It has many food and other light industries, a teacher-training institute, a theatre, and a museum. Pop. (1991 est.) 64,300.