Tian Shan

This article is about the mountain. For district ofÜrümqi, see Tianshan District.

The Tian Shan (Chinese: 天山; pinyin: Tiānshān;Wade–Giles: T'ien1 Shan1, Old Turkic: ,Tenğri tağ), is a large system of mountain ranges locatedin Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan isJengish Chokusu, 7,439 metres (24,406 ft).The Chinese name for Tian Shanmay be derived from theXiongnu language name Qilian (Tsilien; Chinese: 祁连),which was described by Sima Qian in the Records of theGrandHistorian as the homeland of the pre-Xiongnu peo-ples of the region, the Yuezhi, and has been said to referto the Tian Shan rather than to the range 1,500 kilome-tres (930 mi) further east now known by this name.*[1]The Tannu-Olamountains in Tuva (Tuvan: Таңды-Уула)bear the same name (“heaven/celestial mountains”or“god/spirit mountains”).

1 Geography

Tian Shan lies to the north and west of the TaklamakanDesert and directly north of the Tarim Basin in the borderregion of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and northwest China.In the south it links up with the Pamir Mountains and tonorth and east it meets the Altai Mountains of Mongolia.In Western cartography such as National Geographic, theeastern end of the Tian Shan is usually understood to beeast of Ürümqi, with the range to the east of that cityknown as the Bogda Shan as part of the Tian Shan. Chi-nese cartography from the Han Dynasty to the presentagrees, with the Tian Shan including the Bogda Shan andBarkol ranges.The Tian Shan are a part of the Himalayan orogenicbelt, which was formed by the collision of the Indian andEurasian plates in the Cenozoic era. They are one of thelongest mountain ranges in Central Asia and stretch some2,800 kilometres (1,700 mi) eastward from Tashkent inUzbekistan.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 highestpoint in Kyrgyzstan and is on the border with China. TheTian Shan's second highest peak, Khan Tengri (Lord ofthe Spirits), straddles the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan borderand at 7,010 metres (23,000 ft) is the highest point ofKazakhstan. Mountaineers class these as the two most

Tian Shan Mountains from space, October 1997, with Issyk-KulLake in Kyrgyzstan at the northern end

northerly peaks over 7,000 metres (23,000 ft) in theworld.The Torugart Pass, at 3,752 metres (12,310 ft), is locatedat the border between Kyrgyzstan and China's Xinjiangprovince. The forested Alatau ranges, which are at alower altitude in the northern part of the Tian Shan, areinhabited by pastoral tribes that speak Turkic languages.The Tian Shan are separated from the Tibetan Plateau bythe Taklimakan Desert and the Tarim Basin to the south.The major rivers rising in the Tian Shan are the SyrDarya, the Ili River and the Tarim River. The AksuCanyon is a notable feature in the northwestern TianShan.Continuous permafrost is typically found in the Tian Shanstarting at the elevation of about 3,500-3,700m above thesea level. Discontinuous alpine permafrost usually occursdown to 2,700-3,300 m, but in certain locations, due tothe peculiarity of the aspect and the microclimate, it canbe found at elevations as low as 2,000 m.*[2]One of the first Europeans to visit and the first to describethe Tian Shan in detail was the Russian explorer PeterSemenov, who did so in the 1850s.Glaciers in the Tian Shan Mountains have been rapidlyshrinking and have lost 27%, or 5.4 billion tons annually,of its ice mass since 1961 compared to an average of 7%world wide.*[3] It is estimated that by 2050 half of the

1

2 3 ICE AGE

remaining glaciers will have melted.

2 Ranges

The Tian Shan have a number of named ranges whichare often mentioned separately (all distances are approx-imate).

Tian Shan with the ancient silk road

In China the Tian Shan starts north of Kumul City (Hami)with the U-shaped Barkol Mountains, from about 600 to400 kilometres (370 to 250 mi) east of Ürümqi. Then theBogda Shan (god mountains) run from 350 to 40 kilo-metres (217 to 25 mi) east of Ürümqi. Then there isa low area between Ürümqi and the Turfan Depression.The Borohoro mountains start just south of Ürümqi andrun west northwest 450 kilometres (280 mi) separatingDzungaria from the Ili River basin. Their north end abutson the 200 kilometres (120 mi) Dzungarian Alatau whichrun east northeast along Sino-Kazakh border. They start50 kilometres (31 mi) east of Taldykorgan in Kazakhstanand end at the Dzungarian Gate. The Dzungarian Alatauin north, (name?) in middle and Borohoro range in southmake a reversed Z or S, the northeast enclosing part ofDzungaria and the southwest enclosing the upper Ili val-ley.

Kyrgyzstan (borders marked in red) The indentation on the westis the Fergana Valley

In Kyrgyzstan the main line of the Tian Shan continues as(name?) from the base of the Borohoros west 570 kilo-metres (350 mi) to the point where China, Kazakhstanand Kyrgyzstan meet. Here is the highest part of therange – the Central Tian Shan, with Peak Pobeda and

Snow-capped peaks of Kyungey Ala-Too seen from an Issyk KulLake beach

Khan Tengri. West of this, the Tian Shan split into an‘eye’, with Issyk Kul Lake in its center. The south sideof the lake is the Terskey Alatau and the north side theKyungey Ala-Too (shady and sunny Ala-Too). North ofthe Kyungey Ala-Too and parallel to it is the Trans-IliAlatau in Kazakhstan just south of Almaty. West of theeye, the range continues 400 kilometres (250 mi) as theKyrgyz Ala-Too, separating Chui Province from NarynOblast and then Kazakhstan from the Talas Province.This oblast is the upper valley of the Talas River, the southside of which is the 200 kilometres (120 mi) Talas Ala-Too Range ('Ala-too' is a Kirgiz spelling of Alatau). Atthe east end of the Talas Alatau the Suusamyr Too rangeruns southeast enclosing the Suusamyr Valley or plateau.As for the area south of the Fergana Valley there is a800 kilometres (500 mi) group of mountains that curveswest-southwest from south of Issyk Kul Lake separatingthe Tarim Basin from the Fergana Valley. The FerganaRange runs northeast towards the Talas Ala-Too and sep-araties the upper Naryn basin from Fergana proper. Thesouthern side of these mountains merge into the Pamirsin Tajikistan (Alay Mountains and Trans-Alay Range).West of this is the Turkestan Range, which continues al-most to Samarkand.

3 Ice Age

On the north margin of the Tarim basin between themountain chain of the Kokshaal-Tau in the south and thatone of the Terskey Alatau in the north there stretchesthe 100 to 120 km wide Tian Shan plateau with its setup mountain landscape.The Kokshaal-Tau continues withan overall length of 570 km from W of Pik Dankowa(Dankov, 5986 m) up to east-north-east to Pik Pobedi(Tumor Feng, 7439 m) and beyond it. This mountainchain as well as that of the 300 km long parallel moun-tain chain of the TerskeyAlatau and the Tian Shan plateausituated in between, during glacial times were coveredby connected ice-stream-networks and a plateau glacier.

3

Currently the interglacial remnant of this glaciation isformed by the only just 61 km long South Inylschekglacier. The outlet glacier tongues of the plateau glacierflowed to the north as far as down to Lake Issyk Kul(Lake) at 1605 (1609) m asl calving in this 160 km longlake.In the same way strongly glaciated was the in excess of50 km wide high mountain area of the Kungey Alatauconnected north of Issyk Kul and stretching as far as themountain foreland near Alma Ata. The Kungey Alatauis 230 km long. Down from the Kungey Alatau theglacial glaciers also calved into the Issyk Kul lake.ItsChon-Kemin valley was glaciated up to its inflow intothe Chu valley.*[4]*[5]*[6] From the west-elongation ofthe Kungey Alatau –that is the Kirgizskiy Alatau range(42°25’N/74° - 75°E) - the glacial glaciers flowed downas far as into the mountain foreland down to 900 m asl(close to the town Bishkek). Among others the Ak-Saivalley glacier has developed there a mountain forelandglacier.*[7]*[8]*[9]Altogether the glacial Tian Shan glaciation occupied anarea of c. 118 000 km² .The glacier snowline (ELA) asaltitude limit between glacier feeding area and meltingzone had decreased about 1200 altitude metres comparedwith today. Under the condition of a comparable precip-itation ratio there would result from this a depression ofthe average annual temperature of 7.2 to 8.4 °C for theWürm-ice age (Last Glacial period = MIS 2) comparedwith today. *[10]

4 Ecology

In the Trans-Ili Alatau (Shymbulak Valley)

The Tian Shan holds important forests of Schrenk'sSpruce (Picea schrenkiana) at altitudes of over 2,000metres (6,600 ft); the lower slopes have unique naturalforests of wild walnuts and apples.*[11]

5 Chinese religion

In Daoism, Xi Wangmu, the Queen Mother of the West,is believed to guard the peach trees of immortality in theTian Shan.

6 Tengrism

In Tengrism, Khan Tengri is the Lord of the Spirits andthe religion's supreme deity.

7 World Heritage Site

At the 2013 Conference on World Heritage, the easternportion of Tian Shan in western China's Xinjiang Regionwas listed as a World Heritage Site.*[12]

8 See also

• Tectonics of the Tian Shan

9 Notes and references

[1] Liu, Xinru (2001), “Migration and Settlement of theYuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of No-madic and Sedentary Societies”, Journal of World His-tory (Journal of World History), Volume 12 (Issue 2, Fall2001): 261–291

[2] Gorbunov, A.P. (1993),“Geocryology inMt. Tianshan”,PERMAFROST: Sixth International Conference. Proceed-ings. July 5-9, Beijing, China 2, South China University ofTechnology Press, pp. 1105–1107, ISBN 7-5623-0484-X

[3] Naik, Gautam (August 17, 2015). “Central Asia Moun-tain Range Has Lost a Quarter of Ice Mass in 50 Years,Study Says”. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 18,2015.

[4] Kuhle, M. (1994):New Findings on the Ice-cover betweenIssyk-Kul and K2 (Tian Shan, Karakorum) during theLast Glaciation. Proceedings of the International Sympo-sium on the Karakorum andKunlunMountains (ISKKM),Kashi, China, June 1992. (Eds: Zheng Du; Zhang Qing-song; Pan Yusheng) China Meteorological Press, Beijing,185-197.

[5] Grosswald, M. G., Kuhle, M., Fastook, J. L.,(1994):Würm Glaciation of Lake Issyk-Kul Area,Tian Shan Mts.: A Case Study in Glacial History ofCentral Asia. Kuhle, M. (Ed.). Tibet and High Asia.Results of the Sino-German and Russian-German JointExpeditions (III). GeoJournal, 33, (2/3), Dordrecht,Boston, London, Kluwer, pp. 273-310.

4 10 EXTERNAL LINKS

[6] Kuhle, M. (2004):The High Glacial (Last Ice Age andLGM) glacier cover in High- and Central Asia. Accompa-nying text to the mapwork in hand with detailed referencesto the literature of the underlying empirical investigations.Ehlers, J., Gibbard, P. L. (Eds.). Extent and Chronologyof Glaciations, Vol. 3 (Latin America, Asia, Africa, Aus-tralia, Antarctica). Amsterdam, Elsevier B.V., pp. 175-199.

[7] Kuhle, M. (1994):New Findings on the Ice-cover betweenIssyk-Kul and K2 (Tian Shan, Karakorum) during theLast Glaciation. Proceedings of the International Sympo-sium on the Karakorum andKunlunMountains (ISKKM),Kashi, China, June 1992. (Eds: Zheng Du; Zhang Qing-song; Pan Yusheng) China Meteorological Press, Beijing,185-197.

[8] Kuhle, M. & Schröder, N. (2000):New Investigations andResults on the Maximum Glaciation of the Kirgisen Shanand Tian Shan Plateau between Kokshaal Tau and TerskeyAlatau. Zech, W. (Ed.). Pamir and Tian Shan. Contribu-tion of the Quaternary History. International Workshopat the University of Bayreuth. Abstracts. Bayreuth, Uni-versity Bayreuth, p. 8.

[9] Kuhle, M. (2004):The High Glacial (Last Ice Age andLGM) glacier cover in High- and Central Asia. Accompa-nying text to the mapwork in hand with detailed referencesto the literature of the underlying empirical investigations.Ehlers, J., Gibbard, P. L. (Eds.). Extent and Chronologyof Glaciations, Vol. 3 (Latin America, Asia, Africa, Aus-tralia, Antarctica). Amsterdam, Elsevier B.V., pp. 175-199.

[10] Kuhle, M. (1994):New Findings on the Ice-cover betweenIssyk-Kul and K2 (Tian Shan, Karakorum) during theLast Glaciation. Proceedings of the International Sympo-sium on the Karakorum andKunlunMountains (ISKKM),Kashi, China, June 1992. (Eds: Zheng Du; Zhang Qing-song; Pan Yusheng) China Meteorological Press, Beijing,185-197.

[11] http://www.salon.com/2011/10/25/how_the_apple_took_over_the_planet/

[12] 新疆天山成功申遗

Bibliography

• The Contemporary Atlas of China. 1988. Lon-don: Marshall Editions Ltd. Reprint 1989. Sydney:Collins Publishers Australia.

• The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World.Eleventh Edition. 2003. Times Books Group Ltd.London.

10 External links

• Russian mountaineering site

• Tien Shan

• United Nations University (2009) digital video“Finding a place to feed: Kyrgyz shepherds & pas-ture loss": Shepherd shares family's observationsand adaptation to the changing climate in highlandpastures of Kyrgyzstan's Tian Shan mountains Ac-cessed 1 December 2009

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