Isilkul is a town (from 1945) in Russia, the administrative centre of Isilkul District of the Omsk Region.

It has the population of 25.9 thousand people (as of 2009) spread over the area of 39 sq. km.

Located 145 km westward from Omsk and 17 km away from the Russian — Kazakhstan border, the town stretches along Kamyshlovsky Ravine in Ishimsky Plain. Isilkul has a railway station. Near Isilkul there is Shmeliny Nature Reserve.

History of Isilkul

Isilkul was founded in 1895 as a settlement near the railroad station Isilkul, opened from 1896. The station was named after the Lake Isilkul, which means "rotten lake" in the Kazakh language.

The population of the settlement was replenished with out-migrants. The inhabitants were engaged in agriculture and maintaining the railway. The settlement mainly consisted of huts made of airbricks.

It became the industrial community Isil-Kul in 1938 and a town in 1945.