Tian Shan

Tian Shan
Range
none Khan Tengri (7,010�m) at sunset
Khan Tengri (7,010 m) at sunset
Countries China, Pakistan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan
Regions Xinjiang, Jammu and Kashmir, Northern Areas of Pakistan
Highest point Jengish Chokusu
 - elevation 7,439 m (24,406 ft)
 - coordinates
Period Cenozoic
Tian Shan Mountains from space, October 1997, with Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan at the upper (northern) end

The Tian Shan (Chinese: 天山; ('heaven,mountain') Pinyin: Tiān Shān; "celestial mountains")[1], also commonly spelled Tien Shan, is a mountain range located in Central Asia. The Chinese name for Tian Shan or Tien Shan, may in turn go back to a Xiongnu name, qilian (祁连) reported by the Shiji as the last place where they met and had their baby as in of the Yuezhi, which has been argued[2] to refer to the Tian Shan rather than to the range 1,500 km further the east now known by this name. A nearby mountain range, the Tannu-Ola Mountains (Tuvan: Таңды-Уула Tangdy-Uula), also bears a synonymous name ("heaven/celestial mountains" or "god/spirit mountains").

Contents

Geography

The range lies to the north and west of the Taklamakan Desert in the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China. In the south it links up with the Pamir Mountains. It also extends into the Chinese province of Xinjiang and into the northern areas of Pakistan, where it joins the Hindu Kush.

In Western cartography, the eastern end of the Tian Shan is usually understood to be just west of Ürümqi, while the range to the east of that city is known as the Bogda Shan. However, in Chinese cartography, from the Han Dynasty to the present, the Tian Shan is also considered to include the Bogda Shan and Barkol ranges.

The Tian Shan are a part of the Himalayan orogenic belt which was formed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates in the Cenozoic era. They are one of the longest mountain ranges in Central Asia, stretching some 2,800 km eastward from Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

The highest peak in the Tian Shan is the Victory Peak (пик Победы in Russian or Jengish Chokusu in Kyrgyz) which, at 7,439 metres (24,406 ft), is also the highest point in Kyrgyzstan and is on the border with China. The Tian Shan's second highest peak, Khan Tengri (Lord of the Spirits), at 7,010 m, straddles the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border, and is the highest point of Kazakhstan. Mountaineers class these as the two most northerly peaks over 7,000 m in the world.

The Torugart Pass, 3,752 metres (12,310 ft) high, is located at the border between Kyrgyzstan and China's Xinjiang province. The forested Alatau ranges, which are at a lower altitude in the northern part of the Tian Shan, are inhabited by pastoral tribes speaking Turkic languages. The major rivers rising in the Tian Shan are the Syr Darya, the Ili river and the Tarim River. The Aksu Canyon is a notable feature in the northwestern Tian Shan.

One of the first Europeans to visit and the first to describe the Tian Shan in detail was the Russian explorer Peter Semenov in the 1850s.

Ranges of the Tien Shan

The Tien Shan have a number of named ranges which are often mentioned separately. (all distances are approximate.

Tian Shan with the ancient silk road

CHINA: The Tien Shan start north of Hami City with the wishbone-shaped Barkol Mountains, from about 600 to 400 km east of Urumchi. Then the Bogda Shan (god mountains) run from 350 to 40 km east of Urumchi. Then there is a low area between Urumchi and the Turfan Depression. The Borohoro mountains start just south of Urumchi and run west northwest 450 km separating Dzungaria from the Ili River basin. Their north end abuts on the 200km Dzungarian Alatau which run east northeast along Sino-Kazakh border. They start 50km east of Taldykorgan in Kazakhstan and end at the Dzungarian Gate. The Dzungarian Alatau, Borohoros and (name?) make a reversed Z or S, the northeast enclosing part of Dzungaria and the southwest enclosing the upper Ili valley.

Kyrgyzstan
Snow-capped peaks of Kengey Alatau seen from an Issyk Kyl beach

KIRGIZSTAN: The main line of the Tien Shan continues as (name?) from the base of the Borohoros west 570 km to the point where China, Kazakhstan and Kirgizstan meet. Here is the highest part of the range – the Central Tien Shan, with Peak Pobeda and Khan Tengri. West of this, the Tien Shan split into an ‘eye’, with Lake Issyk Kul in its center. The south side of the lake is the Terskey Alatau and the north side the Kengey Alatau (shady and sunny Alatau). North of the Kengey Alatau and parallel to it is the Trans-Ili Alatau in Kazakhstan just south of Almaty. West of the eye, the range continues 400 km as the Kirgiz Alatau, separating Chui Province from Naryn Oblast and then Kazakhstan from the Talas Province. This oblast is the upper valley of the Talas River, the south side of which is the 200km Talas Ala-Too Range ('Ala-too' is a Kirgiz spelling of Alatau). At the east end of the Talas Alatau the Suusamyr Too range runs southeast enclosing the Suusamyr Valley or plateau.

FERGANA: From south of Issyk Kul an 800km the Alay Mountains (need more detail) curve west southwest forming the south side of the Fergana Valley. The Fergana Range cuts across the ‘V’, separating the upper Naryn basin from Fergana proper. The southern side of these mountains merge into the Pamirs in Tajikistan.

Ecology

The Tian Shan holds important forests of Schrenk's Spruce (Picea schrenkiana) at altitudes of over 2,000 m; the lower slopes have unique natural forests of wild Walnuts and Apples.

In Popular Culture

The Tian Shan is featured in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, a computer game released in 1999. Indiana Jones must travel there to obtain the first of the four parts that compose the "Infernal Machine".

Dan Simmons' book The Rise of Endymion includes a planet named Tien Shan. It's a world where the only habitable areas are a series of mountain ranges surrounded by a poisonous sea. The mountains are inhabited by humans who emigrated from the same areas of the Tien Shan on Old Earth.

In the anime series Eureka Seven, a similar mountain range (possibly even the same one), is featured, and is an important location towards the end of the series.

Chinese religion

In Daoism the Goddess of the West is believed to guard the peach trees of immortality in the Tian Shan.

Gallery

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ "Tian Shan". The Columbia Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2008-07-02.
  2. ↑ Xinru Liu, Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies (2001) [1]

References

External links