Kunlun Mountains

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Kunlun Mountains

The Kunlun Mountains (; ) is one of the longest mountain chains in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, extending more than 3,000 km.

The Kunlun runs westwards along the northern part of the Tibetan plateau

Tibetan Plateau

The Tibetan Plateau , also known as the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is a vast, elevated plateau in Central Asia covering most of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province in China and Ladakh in Kashmir, India....
to form the border range of northern Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a Tibetan Plateau in Asia, north of the Himalayas, and the home to the indigenous Tibetan people and its related ethnic groups. With an average elevation of 4,900 metres , it is the highest region on Earth and has in recent decades increasingly been referred to as the "Roof of the World"....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Kunlun Mountains (; ) is one of the longest mountain chains in Asia

Asia

Tibetan Plateau

Tibet

Tarim Basin

The Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of more than 400,000 km2. It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in PRC's far west....
, the infamous Takla Makan or "sand-buried houses" desert, and the Gobi desert

Gobi Desert

The Gobi is the largest desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia. The desert basins of the Gobi are bounded by the Altai Mountains and the grasslands and steppes of Mongolia on the north, by the Hexi Corridor and Tibetan Plateau to the southwest, and by the North China Plain to the s...
. A number of important rivers flow from it including the Karakash River

Karakash River

The Karakash or Black Jade River, also spelled Karakax , is a river in the Xinjiang autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, which lies partially in the disputed Aksai Chin region....
('Black Jade River') and the Yurungkash River ('White Jade River'), which flow through the Khotan

Khotan

The oasis town of Hotan or Hetian . It was previously known in Chinese as ?? pinyin: Yutian.Hotan is the capital of Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, China....
Oasis

Oasis

In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough....
into the Taklamakan Desert.

The highest mountain of the Kunlun Shan is the Kunlun Goddess (7,167 m) in the Keriya area. The Arka Tagh is in the center of the Kunlun Shan; its highest point is Ulugh Muztagh

Ulugh Muztagh

Ulugh Muztagh, also Ulugh Muztag, is an extremely remote mountain group on the Northern Tibet plateau. It is part of the Kunlun Mountains of Central Asia....
. Some authorities claim that the Kunlun extends north westwards as far as Kongur Tagh

Kongur Tagh

Kongur Tagh or Kongkoerh is the highest peak of the Kunlun Mountains in China. Sometimes it is considered as a part of Pamir mountains....
(7,649 m) and the famous Muztagh Ata

Muztagh Ata

Muztagh Ata, or Muztagata , is the second highest of the mountains which form the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau . It is sometimes regarded as being part of the Kunlun Shan, although physically it is more closely connected to the Pamir Mountains....
(7,546 m). But these mountains are physically much more closely linked to the Pamir

Pamir Mountains

The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun Mountains, and Hindu Kush ranges....
group (ancient Mount Imeon

Mount Imeon

Mount Imeon is an ancient name for the Central Asian complex of mountain ranges comprising the present Hindu Kush, Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan, extending from the Zagros Mountains in the southwest to the Altay Mountains in the northeast, and linked to the Kunlun Mountains, Karakoram and Himalayas to the southeast....
).

Bayan Har Mountains

Bayan Har Mountains

The Bayan Har mountains are a mountain range in Qinghai province, People's Republic of China and a branch of the Kunlun Mountains. The Yellow River originates from the basin of Yueguzonglie, which is located in the northern part of the range....
, a southern branch of the Kunlun Mountains, forms the watershed

Water divide

A drainage divide, water divide, divide or watershed is the line separating neighbouring drainage basins . In hilly country, the divide lies along topography pyramidal peak and ridges, but in flat country the divide may be invisible – just a more or less notional line on the ground on either side of which falling...
between the catchment basins of China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
's two longest rivers, the Yangtze River

Yangtze River

The Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang , is the longest river in China and Asia, and the List of rivers by length in the world, after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon River in South America....
and the Huang He.

The mountain range formed at the northern edges of the Cimmerian Plate

Cimmerian Plate

The Cimmerian Plate is an ancient tectonic plate that comprises parts of present-day Anatolia, Iran, Afghanistan, Tibet, Indochina and Malay Peninsula regions....
during its collision, in the Late

Late Triassic

The Late Triassic is in the geologic timescale the third and final of three epoch s of the Triassic geological timescale. The corresponding series is known as the Upper Triassic....
Triassic

Triassic

The Triassic is a geologic period that extends from about 251 to 199 annum . As the first period of the Mesozoic Era, the Triassic follows the Permian and is followed by the Jurassic....
, with Siberia

Siberia (continent)

Siberia is the craton located in the heart of the region of Siberia. Siberia or "Angaraland" is today the Central Siberian Plateau. It is an extremely ancient craton that formed an independent continent before the Permian...
, which resulted in the closing of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean

Paleo-Tethys Ocean

The Paleo-Tethys Ocean was an ancient Paleozoic ocean. It was located between the paleocontinent Gondwana and the so called Hunic terranes. These are divided into the European Hunic and Asiatic Hunic ....
.

Mythology

The Kunlun mountains are believed to be Taoist

Taoism

Taoism refers to a variety of related philosophical and religious traditions and concepts. These traditions have influenced East Asia for over two thousand years and some have spread to the West....
paradise

Paradise

Paradise is an idealized place in which existence is positive, harmonious and timeless. It is conceptually a counter-image of the miseries of human civilization, and in paradise there is only peace, prosperity, and happiness....
. The first to visit this paradise was, according to the legends, King Mu

King Mu of Zhou

King Mu of Zhou or King Mu of Chou or Mu Wang was the fifth sovereign of the Chinese Zhou Dynasty....
(976-922 BCE) of the Zhou Dynasty

Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou Dynasty was preceded by the Shang Dynasty and followed by the Qin Dynasty in China. The Zhou dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in China history?though the actual political and military control of China by the dynasty only lasted during the Western Zhou....
. He supposedly discovered there the Jade Palace of Huang-Di, the mythical Yellow Emperor

Yellow Emperor

Huang-di, or the Yellow Emperor, is a legendary Chinese sovereign and culture hero who is considered in Chinese mythology to be the ancestor of all Han Chinese....
and originator of Chinese culture, and met Hsi Wang Mu (Xi Wang Mu) , the 'Spirit Mother of the West' usually called the 'Queen Mother of the West', who was the object of an ancient religious cult which reached its peak in the Han Dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. The Han Dynasty was ruled by the family known as the Liu clan who had peasant origins....
, also had her mythical abode in these mountains. Jesuit missionaries, the noted American Sinologist Charles Hucker, and London University’s Dr Bernard Leeman (2005) have suggested that Xiwangmu and the Queen of Sheba

Queen of Sheba

The Queen of Sheba , was the woman who ruled the ancient kingdom of Sheba and is referred to in Habeshan history, the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Qur'an....
were one and the same person. The Transcendency of Sheba, a religious group, believes that the Queen of Sheba's pre-Deuteronomic Torah recorded in the Kebra Nagast was influential in the development of Daoism. They insist that after vacating the throne for her son Solomon the queen journeyed to the Kunlun Mountains where, known as the Queen from the West, she attained spiritual enlightenment.