The
Tian Shan ( ("celestial mountains");
PinyinPinyin , or more formally Hanyu Pinyin , is currently the most commonly used romanization system for Standard Mandarin. Hanyu means the Chinese language, and pinyin means "phonetics", or more literally, "spelling sound" or "spelled sound"...
: Tiān Shān;
UyghurUyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turki, is a Turkic language spoken in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a Central Asian region administered by China, mainly by the Uyghur ethnic group. It is spoken by 10 million in China, mostly in Xinjiang...
: تەڭرىتاغ Tengri Tagh), also commonly spelled
Tien Shan, is a
mountain rangeA mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by passes or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes,...
located in
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
. The Chinese name for Tian Shan or Tien Shan, may in turn go back to a
XiongnuThe Xiongnu were a confederation of nomadic tribes from Central Asia with a ruling class of unknown origin and other subjugated tribes. The bulk of information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources. What little is known of their titles and names comes from Chinese transliterations from their...
name,
qilianThe Qilian Mountains is a northern outlier of the Kunlun Mountains, forming the border between the Qinghai and the Gansu provinces of northern China...
reported by the
Shiji as the last place where they met and had their baby as in of the
YuezhiThe Yuezhi or Rouzhi , also known as the Da Yuezhi or Da Rouzhi , were an ancient Central Asian people.They are believed by most scholars to have been an Indo-European...
, which has been argued to refer to the Tian Shan rather than to the range further the east now known by this name. A nearby mountain range, the
Tannu-Ola MountainsThe Tannu-Ola mountains is a mountain range in southern Siberia, in the Tuva Republic of Russia. It extends in an east-west direction and curves along the Mongolian border...
(
TuvanTuvan , also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan or Tuvin, is a Turkic language spoken by around 200,000 people in the Republic of Tuva in south-central Siberia in Russia. The language borrows a great number of roots from the Mongolian language and more recently from the Russian language...
: Таңды-Уула Tangdy-Uula), also bears a synonymous name ("heaven/celestial mountains" or "god/spirit mountains").
Geography
The range lies to the north and west of the Taklamakan Desert in the border region of
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
,
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
and the
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
Uyghur Autonomous Region of western
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. In the south it links up with the
Pamir MountainsThe Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains and since Victorian times they have been known as the "Roof of the World", translated from...
. It also extends into the Chinese province of
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
and into the northern areas of
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, where it joins the
Hindu KushThe Hindu Kush is a mountain range stretching between and north-western Pakistan and eastern and central Afghanistan. The highest point in the Hindu Kush is Tirich Mir in the Chitral region of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan.It is the westernmost extension of the Pamir Mountains, the...
.
In Western cartography, the eastern end of the Tian Shan is usually understood to be just west of
ÜrümqiÜrümqi or Ürümchi , formerly Dihua, is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country....
, while the range to the east of that city is known as the
Bogda ShanThe Bogda Shan range is part of the eastern Tien Shan mountains, and located in Xinjiang, not far from Ürümqi. The highest elevation is Bogda Feng, at 5445 m....
. However, in Chinese cartography, from the
Han DynastyThe Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
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
HimalayanThe Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow", is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau...
orogenic beltOrogeny refers to natural mountain building, and may be studied as a tectonic structural event, as a geographical event, and a chronological event...
which was formed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian
platesPlate tectonics is a theory which describes the large scale motions of Earth's lithosphere...
in the
CenozoicThe Cenozoic Era The Cenozoic (also Cænozoic or Cainozoic) Era The Cenozoic (also Cænozoic or Cainozoic) Era (meaning "new life" (Greek (kainos), "new", and (zoe), "life"), is the most recent of the three classic geological eras and covers the period from 65.5 million years ago to the...
era. They are one of the longest mountain ranges in
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
, stretching some eastward from
TashkentTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million.- History :...
in
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
.
The highest peak in the Tian Shan is the Victory Peak (пик Победы in Russian or Jengish Chokusu in Kyrgyz) which, at , is also the
highest point in KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan is a landlocked nation in Central Asia, west of the People's Republic of China. The smallest of the newly independent Central Asian states, Kyrgyzstan is about the same size as the state of Nebraska, with a total area of about 198,500 square kilometers...
and is on the border with China.
The Tian Shan's second highest peak,
Khan TengriKhan Tengri is a mountain of the Tian Shan mountain range. It is located on the Kyrgyzstan—Kazakhstan border, east of lake Issyk Kul. Its geologic elevation is , but its glacial cap rises to...
(Lord of the Spirits), at , straddles the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border, and is the
highest point of KazakhstanKazakhstan is located in Central Asia, northwest of the People's Republic of China, though the area of the country west of the Ural River is geographically, if not politically, located within Europe. With an area of about 2,717,300 square kilometers, Kazakhstan is more than twice the combined size...
.
MountaineersMountaineering is the sport, hobby or profession of walking, hiking, backpacking and climbing mountains. In Europe it is also referred to as alpinism, while in the Americas the term refers to a particular style of mountain climbing, that involves a mixture of ice climbing, rock climbing, mixed...
class these as the two most northerly peaks over in the world.
The
Torugart PassTorugart Pass is a pass in the Tian Shan mountain range on the border between the Naryn Province of Kyrgyzstan and the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China.The scenic Lake of Chatyr-Kul lies near the pass on the Kyrgyz side...
, high, is located at the border between Kyrgyzstan and China's
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
province. The forested
AlatauAlatau or Ala-Too , meaning "motley mountain" in Turkic languages, is a generic name for a number of mountain ranges in Central Asia, characterized by interleaving areas of vegetation, scattered rocks and snows....
ranges, which are at a lower altitude in the northern part of the Tian Shan, are inhabited by pastoral tribes speaking
Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
. The major rivers rising in the Tian Shan are the
Syr DaryaSyr Darya is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water...
, the
Ili riverthumb|right|300px|Map of the Lake Balkhash drainage basin showing the Ili River and its tributariesThe Ili River is a river in northwestern China and southeastern Kazakhstan .It is long, of which in Kazakhstan...
and the
Tarim RiverThe Tarim River is the principal river of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China....
. The
Aksu CanyonAksu Canyon is 15km long and 500m deep canyon in Kazakhstan. It is situated in the northwest of the Tian Shan mountain range 200km northeast of Tashkent. It has an alpine character with nearby mountains reaching over 4000m. The Aksu-Jabagly reserve, though relatively small in area, it is rich in...
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 Tian Shan
The Tian Shan have a number of named ranges which are often mentioned separately. (all distances are approximate)
ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
: The Tian Shan start north of Hami City with the U-shaped
Barkol Mountains, from about east of Urumchi. Then the
Bogda ShanThe Bogda Shan range is part of the eastern Tien Shan mountains, and located in Xinjiang, not far from Ürümqi. The highest elevation is Bogda Feng, at 5445 m....
(god mountains) run from east of Urumchi. Then there is a low area between Urumchi and the
Turfan DepressionThe Turpan Depression or Turfan Depression is a fault-bounded trough located around and south of the city-oasis of Turpan, in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region in far western China, about 150 km southeast of the provincial capital Ürümqi. It includes the second lowest exposed point on the...
. The
Borohoro mountains start just south of Urumchi and run west northwest separating
DzungariaDzungaria , also called Jungaria, Sungaria, Zungaria, is a geographical region in northwest China corresponding to the northern half of Xinjiang. It covers approximately , lying mostly within Xinjiang, and extending into western Mongolia and eastern Kazakhstan...
from the
Ili Riverthumb|right|300px|Map of the Lake Balkhash drainage basin showing the Ili River and its tributariesThe Ili River is a river in northwestern China and southeastern Kazakhstan .It is long, of which in Kazakhstan...
basin. Their north end abuts on the
Dzungarian AlatauThe Dzungarian Alatau is a mountain range that lies on the boundary of Xinjiang region of China and Kazakhstan. The range is named after Dzungaria. Length: cca. 450 km., elevation: up to 4,464 m....
which run east northeast along Sino-Kazakh border. They start east of
TaldykorganTaldykorgan is the administrative center of Almaty Province, Kazakhstan. It has a population of 118,400 . Most of the people are Kazakhs.A fire at a drug treatment center in Taldykorgan in 2009 killed 38.-Education:...
in Kazakhstan and end at the Dzungarian Gate. The
Dzungarian AlatauThe Dzungarian Alatau is a mountain range that lies on the boundary of Xinjiang region of China and Kazakhstan. The range is named after Dzungaria. Length: cca. 450 km., elevation: up to 4,464 m....
in north, (name?) in middle and Borohoro range in south make a reversed Z or S, the northeast enclosing part of Dzungaria and the southwest enclosing the upper Ili valley.
Kyrgystan: The main line of the Tian Shan continues as (name?) from the base of the Borohoros west to the point where China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan meet. Here is the highest part of the range – the
Central Tian Shan, with
Peak PobedaPobeda Peak is the highest mountain in the Tian Shan mountain range. It lies on the Kyrgyzstan-China border, in the Kokshaal-Too subrange, the highest part of the Tien Shan, southeast of lake Issyk Kul.- Names :...
and
Khan TengriKhan Tengri is a mountain of the Tian Shan mountain range. It is located on the Kyrgyzstan—Kazakhstan border, east of lake Issyk Kul. Its geologic elevation is , but its glacial cap rises to...
. West of this, the Tian Shan split into an ‘eye’, with Lake
Issyk KulIssyk Kul is an endorheic lake in the northern Tian Shan mountains in eastern Kyrgyzstan. It is the tenth largest lake in the world by volume and the second largest saline lake after the Caspian Sea. Although it is surrounded by snow-capped peaks, it never freezes; hence its name, which means...
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 AlatauTrans-Ili Alatau , also spelt as Zailiyski Alatau, Zailiysk Alatau, etc., is a part of the Northern Tian Shan mountain system in Central Asia. It is the northernmost mountain range of Tian Shan stretching for about 350 km with maximal elevation of 4,973m . The term "Alatau" refers to a kind of...
in Kazakhstan just south of
AlmatyAlmaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,348,500 , which represents 9% of the population of the country....
. West of the eye, the range continues as the
Kirgiz Alatau, separating Chui Province from Naryn Oblast and then Kazakhstan from the
Talas ProvinceTalas Province is a province of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Talas. It is bordered on the west and north by Jambyl Province of Kazakhstan, on the east by Chui Province, on the south by Jalal-Abad Province and on the southwest by a finger of Uzbekistan. It is basically a U-shaped valley open to the...
. This
oblastOblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
is the upper valley of the
Talas RiverThe Talas River rises in the Talas Province of Kyrgyzstan and flows west into Kazakhstan. It is formed from the confluence of the Karakol and Uch-Koshoy...
, the south side of which is the
Talas Ala-Too RangeThe Talas Ala-Too range is range of the Tian Shan mountains forming the southern and eastern border of Talas Province of Kyrgyzstan. Its western end extends into Kazakhstan, and its southwestern end joins the Pskem Mountains of Uzbekistan. Its eastern end joins the Kirgiz Alatau mountains...
('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.
FerganaFergana or Farghana is a city , the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan...
: From south of Issyk Kul an group of mountains (name?) curve west southwest separating the
Tarim BasinThe Tarim Basin is a large endorheic basin occupying an area of more than . It is located in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern is the Kunlun Mountains on the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. The...
from the
Fergana ValleyThe Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley is a region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.-Geography and geology:...
. The
Fergana Range runs northeast towards the Talas Ala-Too and separaties the upper Naryn basin from Fergana proper. The southern side of these mountains merge into the Pamirs in Tajikistan (
Alay Mountains* An east-west range of the Tian Shan in southern Osh Province, Kyrgizstan. To the south is the Alay Valley and then the Trans-Alay Range on the Tajik border.* An ill-defined range in the Pamirs, possibly called 'Pamir-Alay'...
and Trans-Alay RangeThe Trans-Alay Range is the northernmost range of the Pamir Mountains , where the Pamirs and the Tian Shan come together. They form the border between Osh Province, Kyrgyzstan and Gorno-Badakshan province, Tajikistan. To the north is the Alay Valley and to the south, the Muksu River. The highest...
). West of this is the
Turkestan Range, which continues as (name?) almost to Samarkand.
Ecology
The Tian Shan holds important forests of
Schrenk's SpruceSchrenk's Spruce is a spruce native to the Tian Shan mountains of central Asia in western China , Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Northern Pakistan. It grows at altitudes of 1,300-3,600 metres, usually in pure forests, sometimes mixed with the Tien Shan variety of Siberian Fir Schrenk's Spruce (Picea...
(
Picea schrenkiana) at altitudes of over ; the lower slopes have unique natural forests of wild
WalnutJuglans regia , is the original walnut tree of the Old World. It is native in a region stretching from the Balkans eastward to the Himalayas and southwest China...
s and
AppleThe apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family Rosaceae. It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits...
s.
In Popular Culture
- The Tian Shan is featured in Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine is a video game for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, and Game Boy Color based on the film series Indiana Jones. It was originally launched for Windows in 1999 and was later launched for game console format...
, a computer game released in 1999. Indiana JonesDr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr. is a fictional adventurer, OSS agent, professor of archaeology, and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
must travel there to obtain the first of the four parts that compose the "Infernal Machine".
- Dan Simmons
Dan Simmons is an American author most widely known for his Hugo Award-winning science fiction series, known as the Hyperion Cantos, and for his Locus-winning Ilium/Olympos cycle....
' Hyperion CantosThe Hyperion Cantos form a tetralogy of science fiction novels by Dan Simmons.The Cantos is an epic science fiction series of novels. Set in the far future, and focusing more on plot and story development than technical detail, it falls into the soft science fiction category, and could be...
include a planet known as T'ien Shan (using the Wade-GilesWade–Giles , sometimes abbreviated Wade, is a Romanization system for the Mandarin language used in Beijing. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Wade during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert Giles' Chinese–English dictionary of 1892.Wade–Giles' was the main...
Romanization); it is particularly featured in The Rise of EndymionThe Rise of Endymion is a 1997 science fiction novel by Dan Simmons. It is the fourth and final novel in his Hyperion Cantos fictional universe...
, the concluding novel of the cycle. Simmons' planet T'ien Shan is covered in a poisonous, acidic atmosphere, but the tops of the mountains are high enough that the atmosphere is breathable. Within the universe of the Cantos, the planet is settled by Buddhists and Muslims (presumably from the original Tian Shan), but also Jews and Norse.
- In the anime series Eureka Seven
Eureka Seven, known in Japan as , is a mecha anime TV series by Bones. Eureka Seven tells the story of Renton Thurston and the outlaw group Gekkostate, his relationship with the enigmatic mecha pilot Eureka, and the mystery of the Coralians....
, a similar mountain range (possibly even the same one), is featured, and is an important location towards the end of the series.
- In some Chinese
China is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
WuxiaWuxia or Wǔxiá is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists set in ancient China. Although Wuxia is traditionally a form of literature, it is now found in art, comics, films, television, theatre and video games...
novels such as Seven Swords of Mount HeavenQi Jian Xia Tian Shan aka Seven Swords of Mount Heaven, is a long Wuxia novel by Wuxia writer Liang Yusheng. It was written between 1956 and 1957 and boasts of 31 chapters...
, Tian Shan is home to a fictional martial arts sect known as the Mount Heaven Sect (天山派).
- In the upcoming video game Modern Warfare 2, 2 of the main characters must scale the walls of ice to reach an airfield.
- Tian Shan mountains are an the integral setting in David Gibbins 2009 book, Tiger Warrior.
Chinese religion
In Daoism the Goddess of the West is believed to guard the
peachThe peach is known as a species of Prunus native to China that bears an edible juicy fruit also called a peach. It is a deciduous tree growing to 4–10 m tall, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae...
trees of
immortalityImmortality is the concept of living in a physical or spiritual form for an infinite or inconceivably vast length of time....
in the Tian Shan.
External links