Tian Shan

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Tian Shan Mountains from space, October 1997, with Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan at the upper (northern) end

The Tian Shan (Chinese: 天山; Pinyin: Tiān Shān; celestial mountains), also spelled Tien Shan (Heavenly Mountains), is a mountain range located in Central Asia, 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. The now widely-used name Tian Shan is a Chinese translation of the original Uyghur name Tengri Tagh (mountains of the spirits).

In western cartography the eastern end of the Tian Shan is usually understood to be just before Urumchi, 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 Tianshan 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 around 2,800 km eastward from Tashkent in Uzbekistan.

The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Pik Pobedy or Pik Pobeda (Victory Peak) which, at 7,439 m or 24,408 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. Mountaineers class these as the two most northerly peaks over 7,000 m in the world.

The Torugart Pass, 3,752 m or 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, Ili river and the Tarim river.

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

Image gallery

See also

• Aksu Canyon

Computer Game Appearance

• The Tian Shan feature in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine a 1999 released computer game, now with a sequel Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb, the latest in the series.

References

• The Contemporary Atlas of China. 1988. London: Marshall Editions Ltd. Reprint 1989. Sydney: Collins Publishers Australia.
• The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World. Eleventh Edition. 2003. Times Books Group Ltd. London.

External links

• [Russian mountaineering site]

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