A report on Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains

Tian Shan Mountains from space, October 1997, with Issyk-Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan at the northern end
Pamir Mountains on map showing Sakastan about 100 BC
Tian Shan with the ancient silk road
Pamir Mountains from an airplane
Kyrgyzstan (borders marked in red) The indentation on the west is the Fergana Valley
Part of the Pamir Mountain range in springtime
Map of Tian Shan.
Expedition in 1982 to Tartu Ülikool 350 Peak, which was considered to be the highest unreached peak in the territory of former Soviet Union at the time
In the Karakol valley (Issyk-Kul Region, Kyrgyzstan)
Pamir Highway
Snow-capped peaks of the Tian Shan seen from an Issyk Kul Lake beach
Ismoil Somoni Peak (then known as Peak Communism) taken in 1989
Koldeneng Valley in Ili Prefecture
Climbers near "Peak Communism" in 1978
Kongur Tagh (left) and Kongur Tiube (slightly to the right) as seen from the Karakoram Highway
Slopes of Pamir Mountains on the Chinese side and Muztagh Ata
Pamir Mountains from a NASA satellite image, April 2012

It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges.

- Pamir Mountains

In the south it links up with the Pamir Mountains and to north and east it meets the Altai Mountains of Mongolia.

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

5 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Central Asia

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Subregion of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north.

Subregion of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north.

Expanded definition of Central Asia. Core definition that includes the five post-Soviet states in dark green. Afghanistan, the most commonly added country to Central Asia, in green.
Three sets of possible boundaries for the Central Asia region (which overlap with conceptions of South and East Asia).
On the southern shore of Issyk Kul lake, Issyk Kul Region.
Central Asia map of Köppen climate classification.
Iranian-speaking people circa 170 BC. Eastern Iranian languages are in orange, Western Iranian languages are in red.
Uzbek men from Khiva, ca. 1861–1880
The Chinese Tang dynasty at its greatest extension, controlling large parts of Central Asia.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 1979
Mosque in Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan
Saadi Shirazi is welcomed by a youth from Kashgar during a forum in Bukhara.
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi in Hazrat-e Turkestan, Kazakhstan. Timurid architecture consisted of Persian art.
Kazakh man on a horse with golden eagle
GDP growth trends in Central Asia, 2000–2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.1
GDP in Central Asia by economic sector, 2005 and 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030, Figure 14.2
GDP per capita development in Central Asia, since 1973
Trends in research expenditure in Central Asia, as a percentage of GDP, 2001–2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: 2030 (2015), Figure 14.3
Central Asian researchers by sector of employment (HC), 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.5
Central Asian researchers by field of science, 2013. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.4
Scientific publications from Central Asia catalogued by Thomson Reuters' Web of Science, Science Citation Index Expanded, 2005–2014, UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.6
Cumulative total of articles by Central Asians between 2008 and 2013, by field of science. Source: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030 (2015), Figure 14.6
Ethnic map of Central Asia.
White areas are thinly-populated semi-desert.
The three northwest-tending lines are the Syr Darya and Amu Darya Rivers flowing from the eastern mountains into the Aral Sea and in the south the irrigated north side of the Kopet Dagh mountains.
Uzbek children in Samarkand
Children in Afghanistan
Tartar prostrating before Qianlong Emperor of China (1757).
Political cartoon from the period of the Great Game showing the Afghan Amir Sher Ali with his "friends" Imperial Russia and the United Kingdom (1878)
Islam Karimov (President, Uzbekistan) in the Pentagon, March 2002

Central Asia is a region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains (Tian Shan), vast deserts (Kyzyl Kum, Taklamakan), and especially treeless, grassy steppes.

The Gobi desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan (Da Hinggan) Mountains, 116°–118° E.

Kyrgyzstan

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Mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia.

Mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia.

Kyrgyz Khaganate
Silk road caravansarai utilized during the Islamic Golden Age
Bishkek
Urial on a Kyrgyzstan stamp
Nomads in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyz family in the village of Sary-Mogol, Osh Region
Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city, Osh, in 2018
Kyrgyzstan's topography
On the southern shore of Issyk Kul lake, Issyk Kul Region
A map of Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan map of Köppen climate classification
Sadyr Japarov, President of Kyrgyzstan
Supreme Council building in Bishkek.
Japarov with Vladimir Putin.
President Sooronbay Jeenbekov at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in China, June 2018
Kyrgyz soldiers conducting mine sweeping exercises.
A proportional representation of Kyrgyzstan exports, 2019
Southern shore of Issyk Kul Lake.
Issyk Kul Lake
A population pyramid showing Kyrgyzstan's age distribution (2005).
Population density of Kyrgyzstan, 2015
Kyrgyz men in Naryn Region
Uzbeks in Osh
The name of Kyrgyzstan rendered in the traditional script in use from 13th century to 1920.
Karakol Dungan Mosque
Bishkek Eastern Orthodox Church
Mosque under construction in Kyrgyzstan
Musicians playing traditional Kyrgyz music.
A traditional Kyrgyz manaschi performing part of the Epic of Manas at a yurt camp in Karakol
Hunting with an eagle
Bandy: Kyrgyzstan in red against Japan
Bishkek West Bus Terminal
Street scene in Osh.

The Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 AD. From the tenth century the Kyrgyz migrated as far as the Tian Shan range and maintained their dominance over this territory for about 200 years.

The Russian takeover was met with numerous revolts, and many of the Kyrgyz opted to relocate to the Pamir Mountains and Afghanistan.

Woven silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, China, dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd century BCE

Silk Road

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Network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century.

Network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century.

Woven silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, China, dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd century BCE
Chinese jade and steatite plaques, in the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE. British Museum.
Achaemenid Persian Empire at its greatest extent, showing the Royal Road.
Soldier with a centaur in the Sampul tapestry, wool wall hanging, 3rd–2nd century BCE, Xinjiang Museum, Urumqi, Xinjiang, China.
A ceramic horse head and neck (broken from the body), from the Chinese Eastern Han dynasty (1st–2nd century CE)
Bronze coin of Constantius II (337–361), found in Karghalik, Xinjiang, China
The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism: Mahayana Buddhism first entered the Chinese Empire (Han dynasty) during the Kushan Era. The overland and maritime "Silk Roads" were interlinked and complementary, forming what scholars have called the "great circle of Buddhism".
Central Asia during Roman times, with the first Silk Road
A Westerner on a camel, Northern Wei dynasty (386–534)
Map showing Byzantium along with the other major silk road powers during China's Southern dynasties period of fragmentation.
Coin of Constans II (r. 641–648), who is named in Chinese sources as the first of several Byzantine emperors to send embassies to the Chinese Tang dynasty
A Chinese sancai statue of a Sogdian man with a wineskin, Tang dynasty (618–907)
The empires and city-states of the Horn of Africa, such as the Axumites were important trading partners in the ancient Silk Road.
After the Tang defeated the Gokturks, they reopened the Silk Road to the west.
Marco Polo's caravan on the Silk Road, 1380
Map of Eurasia and Africa showing trade networks, c. 870
The Round city of Baghdad between 767 and 912 was the most important urban node along the Silk Road.
A lion motif on Sogdian polychrome silk, 8th century, most likely from Bukhara
Yuan Dynasty era Celadon vase from Mogadishu.
Map of Marco Polo's travels in 1271–1295
Port cities on the maritime silk route featured on the voyages of Zheng He.
Plan of the Silk Road with its maritime branch
Yangshan Port of Shanghai, China
Port of Trieste
Trans-Eurasia Logistics
The Silk Road in the 1st century
The Nestorian Stele, created in 781, describes the introduction of Nestorian Christianity to China
Fragment of a wall painting depicting Buddha from a stupa in Miran along the Silk Road (200AD - 400AD)
A blue-eyed Central Asian monk teaching an East-Asian monk, Bezeklik, Turfan, eastern Tarim Basin, China, 9th century; the monk on the right is possibly Tocharian, although more likely Sogdian.
Bilingual edict (Greek and Aramaic) by Indian Buddhist King Ashoka, 3rd century BCE; see Edicts of Ashoka, from Kandahar. This edict advocates the adoption of "godliness" using the Greek term Eusebeia for Dharma. Kabul Museum.
A statue depicting Buddha giving a sermon, from Sarnath, 3000 km southwest of Urumqi, Xinjiang, 8th century
Iconographical evolution of the Wind God. Left: Greek Wind God from Hadda, 2nd century. Middle: Wind God from Kizil, Tarim Basin, 7th century. Right: Japanese Wind God Fujin, 17th century.
Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh
Sultanhani caravanserai
Shaki Caravanserai, Shaki, Azerbaijan
Two-Storeyed Caravanserai, Baku, Azerbaijan
Bridge in Ani, capital of medieval Armenia
Taldyk pass
Medieval fortress of Amul, Turkmenabat, Turkmenistan
Zeinodin Caravanserai
Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel, sancai ceramic glaze, Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907)
The ruins of a Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) Chinese watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang, Gansu province
A late Zhou or early Han Chinese bronze mirror inlaid with glass, perhaps incorporated Greco-Roman artistic patterns
A Chinese Western Han dynasty (202 BCE – 9 CE) bronze rhinoceros with gold and silver inlay
Han dynasty Granary west of Dunhuang on the Silk Road.
Green Roman glass cup unearthed from an Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) tomb, Guangxi, southern China

Significantly, these mines were not very far from the lapis lazuli and spinel ("Balas Ruby") mines in Badakhshan, and, although separated by the formidable Pamir Mountains, routes across them were apparently in use from very early times.

The northern route travelled northwest through the Chinese province of Gansu from Shaanxi Province and split into three further routes, two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the Taklamakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar, and the other going north of the Tian Shan mountains through Turpan, Talgar, and Almaty (in what is now southeast Kazakhstan).

Fergana Valley on map showing Sakastan about 100BC

Fergana Valley

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The Fergana Valley (Фергана өрөөнү; Фарғона водийси/Farg'ona vodiysi; водии Фарғона, Vodii Farg'ona) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan.

The Fergana Valley (Фергана өрөөнү; Фарғона водийси/Farg'ona vodiysi; водии Фарғона, Vodii Farg'ona) in Central Asia lies mainly in eastern Uzbekistan, but also extends into southern Kyrgyzstan and northern Tajikistan.

Fergana Valley on map showing Sakastan about 100BC
Probable Greek soldier in the Sampul tapestry, woollen wall hanging, 3rd-2nd century BC, Sampul, Urumqi Xinjiang Museum.
Ancient cities of Bactria. Fergana, to the top right, formed a periphery to these less powerful cities and states.
The tomb of Ali at Shakhimardan
Babur, the Turco-Mongol founder of the Mughal dynasty, was a native of Andijan in the Fergana Valley.
Khan's Palace, Kokand.
Soviet negotiations with basmachi, Fergana, 1921
Confluence of Naryn and Kara Darya seen from space (false color). Many irrigated agricultural fields can be seen.
The Syr Darya river bridge at Khujand, Tajikistan, in the far west of the Fergana Valley.

The Fergana Valley is an intermountain depression in Central Asia, between the mountain systems of the Tien Shan in the north and the Alay in the south.

Its southern limits, in the Pamirs, were fixed by an Anglo-Russian commission in 1885, from Zorkul (Victoria Lake) to the Chinese frontier; and Khignan, Roshan and Wakhan were assigned to Afghanistan in exchange for part of Darvaz (on the left bank of the Panj), which was given to Bukhara.

China

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Country in East Asia.

Country in East Asia.

China (today's Guangdong), Mangi (inland of Xanton), and Cataio (inland of China and Chequan, and including the capital Cambalu, Xandu, and a marble bridge) are all shown as separate regions on this 1570 map by Abraham Ortelius
10,000 years old pottery, Xianren Cave culture (18000–7000 BCE)
Yinxu, the ruins of the capital of the late Shang dynasty (14th century BCE)
China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, is famed for having united the Warring States' walls to form the Great Wall of China. Most of the present structure, however, dates to the Ming dynasty.
Map showing the expansion of Han dynasty in the 2nd century BC
The Tang dynasty at its greatest extent
199x199px
The Qing conquest of the Ming and expansion of the empire
The Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China to defeat the anti-foreign Boxers and their Qing backers. The image shows a celebration ceremony inside the Chinese imperial palace, the Forbidden City after the signing of the Boxer Protocol in 1901.
Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of Republic of China, one of the first republics in Asia.
Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong toasting together in 1945 following the end of World War II
Mao Zedong proclaiming the establishment of the PRC in 1949.
The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests was ended by a military-led massacre which brought condemnations and sanctions against the Chinese government from various foreign countries.
Satellite image of China from NASA WorldWind
Köppen-Geiger climate classification map for mainland China.
A giant panda, China's most famous endangered and endemic species, at the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Sichuan
The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.
Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao of 1044 CE
Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen. Huawei is the world's largest telecoms-equipment-maker and the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world.
Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, one of the first Chinese spaceports
Internet penetration rates in China in the context of East Asia and Southeast Asia, 1995–2012
The Duge Bridge is the highest bridge in the world.
The Beijing Daxing International Airport features the world's largest single-building airport terminal.
The Port of Shanghai's deep water harbor on Yangshan Island in the Hangzhou Bay is the world's busiest container port since 2010.
A 2009 population density map of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. The eastern coastal provinces are much more densely populated than the western interior.
Ethnolinguistic map of China
A trilingual sign in Sibsongbanna, with Tai Lü language on the top
Map of the ten largest cities in China (2010)
Beijing's Peking University, one of the top-ranked universities in China
Chart showing the rise of China's Human Development Index from 1970 to 2010
Geographic distribution of religions in China.  
 Chinese folk religion (including Confucianism, Taoism, and groups of Chinese Buddhism)
 Buddhism tout court
 Islam
 Ethnic minorities' indigenous religions
 Mongolian folk religion
 Northeast China folk religion influenced by Tungus and Manchu shamanism; widespread Shanrendao
Fenghuang County, an ancient town that harbors many architectural remains of Ming and Qing styles.
A Moon gate in a Chinese garden.
The stories in Journey to the West are common themes in Peking opera.
Map showing major regional cuisines of China
Go is an abstract strategy board game for two players, in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent and was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago.
Long March 2F launching Shenzhou spacecraft. China is one of the only three countries with independent human spaceflight capability.
The Tang dynasty at its greatest extent and Tang's protectorates
Lihaozhai High School in Jianshui, Yunnan. The sign is in Hani (Latin alphabet), Nisu (Yi script), and Chinese.
The Qing conquest of the Ming and expansion of the empire
China topographic map with East Asia countries

The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia.