Tian shan

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Tian shan

Central Tian Shan mountains.jpg

The Tian Mountains on the China-Kyrgyz border with Khan Tengri (7010 m) visible in the center

Geographic location

Central Asia Continent

Coordinates 42 ° 02′15 ″ N 80 ° 07′31 ″ E

Administrative location

Country Flag of Kazakhstan.svg Kazakhstan

Flag of Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan

Flag of the People's Republic of China China Tajikistan

Xinjiang Division

Xinjiang Branch (CHN)

Characteristics

Orientation From west to east

Peak Jengish Chokusu Peak Pobeda Peak (7439 m)

Summits Jengish Chokusu Peak (7439 m), Khan Tengri (7010 m)

Length 2500 km approx.

Width 100-400 km

Location map

Tian Shan located in XinjiangTian ShanTian Shan

Geolocation in Xinjiang

[edit data on Wikidata]

The Tian Mountains or by tautoponym Tian Shan (in Chinese, 天山; pinyin, Tiān Shān; literally,
'heavenly mountains'; in Mongolian, Тэнгэр уул; in Uyghur, ‫تاغ تەڭرى‬, Tengri Tagh, also
transliterated as Tien) is a great system mountainous in Central Asia, located in the border region
between Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the People's Republic of China, specifically with Xinjiang
located in the western part of the country. It is the fifth largest relief in the world after the
Himalayas, the Andes, the Rocky Mountains and the Pamir Mountains.1
It has its maximum height at the Jengish Chokusu Peak (Victoria, formerly Pobeda Peak), of 7439
m, the highest point in Kyrgyzstan, located on the border with China. The second highest peak is
the Khan Tengri (in Tatar and Mongolian: "Lord of the spirits"), 7010 m, located on the border
between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The Chinese name of the Tian may derive from the Xiongnu name of the Qilian Mountains (祁连),
which were described in the Shiji (Historical Memories) as the homeland of the Yuezhi, and it has
been said2 that they referred to the Tian Shan instead of the mountain range located 1500 km
further east, which is now known by that name. The nearby Tannu-Ola Mountains (in Tuvano,
Таңды-Уула Tangdy-Uula) bear the same name ("Heavenly Mountains" or "God / Spirit
Mountains").

Index

1 History

2 Geography

2.1 Tian Shan mountain ranges

2.2 Hydrography

2.3 Geology

2.4 Climate

3 Nature

3.1 Fauna

3.2 Flora

3.3 Environmental protection

4 Ecology

5 Chinese religion

6 Gallery

7 See also

8 Notes

9 References

10 External links
History

The Tian Mountains on a map and the ancient Silk Road.

The Tian Mountains were a backdrop to one of the branches of the Silk Road, the branch that
bordered the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin to the north. Several oasis cities - Turfan, Yuli,
Karasahr, Korla, Kuqa, Aksu, Bachu, and Kashgar - lie at the foot of the south face of the Tian Shan.
1 In the Chinese city of Kasgar, at the western end of the Tarim basin, this route cut through the
Tian Shan Mountains, branching north towards Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.3

One of the first Europeans to visit the Tian Shan Mountains and the first to describe them in detail
was the Russian explorer Pyotr Semyonov-Tian-Shanski, who visited them in the 1850s.

Two hundred kilometers east of Bishkek, the Tian Mountains around Almaty are the birthplace of
Malus sieversii, recently confirmed as the common ancestor of all apple varieties (the name
Almaty or Alma-Ata, in Kazakh, means' the grandfather of The apples").

See also: Silk Road

Geography

Khan Tengri Peak, the 2nd highest in the massif.

The chain runs east to west from Xinjiang, continuing along the southern border of Kazakhstan and
Kyrgyzstan and ending in the west joining the northern part of the mountains of the Pamir range.
From east to west, its total length is 2,500 km, with a width from north to south between 100 and
400 km. The length of the section in Chinese territory is 1,700 km, with two-thirds of the total
area.4 In Kyrgyzstan, the Tian Mountains lie southeast of the salty Issyk-Kul Lake.

The Tian Mountains lie to the north and west of the Taklamakan Desert and directly north of the
Tarim Basin; to the north and east, they meet the Altai Mountains of Mongolia.

In western cartography, the eastern end of the Tian is generally understood to be just west of
Urumchi, while the ridge to the east of the city is known as the Bogda Shan Mountains. In Chinese
cartography, from the Han dynasty to the present day, however, the Tian Mountains also include
the Bogda and Barkol mountain ranges.
The Tian Ranges are part of the Himalayan orogenic belt, which was formed by the collision of the
Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates in the Cenozoic era. They are one of the longest
mountain ranges in Central Asia, stretching some 2,800 kilometers east from Tashkent in
Uzbekistan.

The highest peak in the Tian Mountains is Jengish Chokusu Peak, formerly Pobedy Peak, (Russian:
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