Tian Shan and Related Topics

Xinjiang

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Landlocked autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest of the country at the crossroads of Central Asia and East Asia.

Dzungaria (Red) and the Tarim Basin or Altishahr (Blue)

Northern Xinjiang (Junggar Basin) (Yellow), Eastern Xinjiang- Turpan Depression (Turpan Prefecture and Hami Prefecture) (Red) and Altishahr/the Tarim Basin (Blue)

Physical map showing the separation of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) by the Tien Shan Mountains

Map of Han Dynasty in 2 CE. Light blue is the Tarim Basin protectorate.

Old Uyghur/Yugur art from the Bezeklik murals

A Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel. Sancai ceramic statuette, Tang dynasty

Mongol states from the 14th to the 17th centuries: the Northern Yuan dynasty, Four Oirat, Moghulistan and Kara Del

The Dzungar–Qing Wars, between the Qing Dynasty and the Dzungar Khanate

The Battle of Oroi-Jalatu in 1756, between the Manchu and Oirat armies

Scene from the 1828 Qing campaign against rebels in Altishahr

19th-century Khotan Uyghurs in Yettishar

Governor Sheng Shicai ruled from 1933 to 1944.

The Soviet-backed Second East Turkestan Republic encompassed Xinjiang's Ili, Tarbagatay and Altay districts.

Black Irtysh river in Burqin County is a famous spot for sightseeing.

Nur Bekri, Chairman of the Xinjiang Government between 2007 and 2015

The distribution map of Xinjiang's GDP per person (2011)

Ürümqi is a major industrial center within Xinjiang.

This flag (Kök Bayraq) has become a symbol of the East Turkestan independence movement.

"Heroic Gesture of Bodhisattvathe Bodhisattva", example of 6th-7th-century terracotta Greco-Buddhist art (local populations were Buddhist) from Tumxuk, Xinjiang

Sogdian donors to the Buddha, 8th century fresco (with detail), Bezeklik, Eastern Tarim Basin

People engaging in snow sports by a statue of bodhisattva Guanyin in Wujiaqu

Temple of the Great Buddha in Midong, Ürümqi

Taoist Temple of Fortune and Longevity at the Heavenly Lake of Tianshan in Fukang, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture

Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, largest mosque in China

Erkin Tuniyaz, the incumbent Chairman of the Xinjiang Government

The rugged Karakoram, Kunlun and Tian Shan mountain ranges occupy much of Xinjiang's borders, as well as its western and southern regions.

Kyrgyzstan

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Mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia.

Silk road caravansarai utilized during the Islamic Golden Age

Kyrgyz family in the village of Sary-Mogol, Osh Region

Kyrgyzstan's second-largest city, Osh, in 2018

On the southern shore of Issyk Kul lake, Issyk Kul Region

Kyrgyzstan map of Köppen climate classification

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

A population pyramid showing Kyrgyzstan's age distribution (2005).

The name of Kyrgyzstan rendered in the traditional script in use from 13th century to 1920.

Musicians playing traditional Kyrgyz music.

A traditional Kyrgyz manaschi performing part of the Epic of Manas at a yurt camp in Karakol

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.

Tarim Basin

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Endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about 888,000 km2 and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.

Physical map showing the separation of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Taklamakan) by the Tien Shan Mountains

Tarim basin ancient boats; they were used for burials

Tarim mummies, found in westernmost Xinjiang, within the Tarim Basin.

Fragmentary painting on silk of a woman playing the go boardgame, from the Astana Cemetery, Gaochang, c. 744 AD, during the late period of Tang Chinese rule (just before the An Lushan Rebellion)

Map of Taizong's campaigns against the Tarim Basin oasis states, allies of the Western Turks.

A document from Khotan written in Khotanese Saka, part of the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, listing the animals of the Chinese zodiac in the cycle of predictions for people born in that year; ink on paper, early 9th century

Uyghur princes from the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves near Turpan, Kingdom of Qocho, 8th-9th centuries

An Islamic cemetery outside the Afaq Khoja Mausoleum in Kashgar

Northern Xinjiang (Dzungar Basin) (yellow), Eastern Xinjiang - Turpan Depression (Turpan Prefecture and Hami Prefecture) (red), and the Tarim Basin (blue)

Fresco, with Hellenistic influences, from a stupa shrine, Miran

Painting of a Christian woman, Khocho (Gaochang), early period of Chinese Tang rule, 602–654 AD

Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau.

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.

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).

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.

The Chinese Tang dynasty at its greatest extension, controlling large parts of Central Asia.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, 1979

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.

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.

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.

Ürümqi

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Capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China.

Map including Ürümqi (labeled as WU-LU-MU-CH'I) and nearby areas from the International Map of the World (1975)

Outer Ring Road viaducts in Ürümqi at night

Buildings in Ürümqi CBDs near People's Square

Xinjiang University of Finance and Economics.

Steppe peoples had used the location, the pass between the Bogda Shan to the east and the Tian Shan to the west, connecting the Dzungar Basin to the north and the Turpan Depression to the south.

Kazakhstan

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Transcontinental landlocked country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe.

Approximate extent of Scythia within the area of distribution of Eastern Iranian languages (shown in orange) in the 1st century BC

Cuman–Kipchak confederation in Eurasia circa 1200. The Kazakhs are descendants of Kipchaks, Nogais and other Turkic and medieval Mongol tribes

Ural Cossacks skirmish with Kazakhs (the Russians originally called the Kazakhs "Kirgiz")

Young Pioneers at a Young Pioneer camp in Kazakh SSR

The International Conference on Primary Health Care in 1978, known as the Alma-Ata Declaration

The Monument of Independence, Republic Square, Almaty

Satellite image of Kazakhstan (November 2004)

The Kazakh Steppe is part of the Eurasian Steppe Belt (in on the map)

Kazakhstan map of Köppen climate classification

President Nazarbayev with U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2012

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev with
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019

Member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO)

A proportional representation of Kazakhstan exports, 2019

Aktau is Kazakhstan's only seaport on the Caspian Sea

Kazakhstan has the largest proven oil reserves in the Caspian Sea region.

Train 22 Kyzylorda – Semipalatinsk, hauled by a Kazakhstan Temir Zholy 2TE10U diesel locomotive. Picture taken near Aynabulak, Kazakhstan

Group of Kazakhstan physicists in collaboration with Uzbek researchers working at the ion accelerator DC-60

Baikonur Cosmodrome is the world's oldest and largest operational spaceport

Central Asian ethnolinguistic patchwork, 1992

Kazakhstanis on a Lake Jasybay beach, Pavlodar Region

Khazret Sultan Mosque is the biggest mosque in Kazakhstan

A Kazakhstan performer demonstrates the long equestrian heritage as part of the gala concert during the opening ceremonies of the Central Asian Peacekeeping Battalion

Kanysh Satpayev, one of the founders of Soviet era metallogeny, principal advocate and the first president of Kazakhstan Academy of Sciences

1965 Soviet stamp honouring Kazakh essayist and poet Abai Qunanbaiuly

A-Studio was created in 1982 in Almaty, then called Alma-Ata, hence called "Alma-Ata Studio"

International Astana Action Film Festival, 2010

Timur Bekmambetov, a notable Kazakh director

The Charyn Canyon is 80 km long, cutting through a red sandstone plateau and stretching along the Charyn River gorge in northern Tian Shan ("Heavenly Mountains", 200 km east of Almaty) at 43.35032°N, 79.08036°W.

Pamir Mountains

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The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia, South Asia and East Asia.

Part of the Pamir Mountain range in springtime

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

Ismoil Somoni Peak (then known as Peak Communism) taken in 1989

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.

Tashkent

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Capital and largest city of Uzbekistan, as well as the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2,694,400 (2021).

Ambassadors from Chaganian (central figure, inscription of the neck), and Chach (modern Tashkent) to king Varkhuman of Samarkand. 648-651 CE, Afrasiyab murals, Samarkand.

Arab Caliphate under Abbasid dynasty c 850. (Tashkent was ruled by Umayyad and Abbasids)

Silver Dirham of Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid minted in Tashkent (Tachkent, Mad'an al-Shash) in 190 AH (805/806 CE)

Barak khan madrasa, Shaybanids, 16th century

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was built by the Russian Orthodox Church in Tashkent.

The Courage Monument in Tashkent on a 1979 Soviet stamp

Tashkent and vicinity, satellite image Landsat 5, 2010-06-30

Bread vendor in a market street of Tashkent

Maksim Shatskikh, a striker for the Uzbekistan national football team, is from Tashkent.

1966: earthquake and subsequent redevelopment

Tashkent was first settled some time between the 5th and 3rd centuries BC by ancient people as an oasis on the Chirchik River, near the foothills of the West Tian Shan Mountains.

Taklamakan Desert

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Desert in Southwestern Xinjiang in Northwest China.

Map including the Taklamakan Desert (1917)

The Molcha (Moleqie) River forms a vast alluvial fan at the southern border of the Taklamakan Desert, as it leaves the Altyn-Tagh mountains and enters the desert in the western part of the Qiemo County. The left side appears blue from water flowing in many streams. The picture is taken in May, when the river is full with the snow/glacier meltwater.

It is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the north, and the Gobi Desert to the east.

Jengish Chokusu

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Peak seen in 1987. Photo by Jaan Künnap.

Jengish Chokusu (Жеңиш чокусу, جەڭىش چوقۇسۇ, ; ; Пик Победы, Pik Pobedy, ) is the highest mountain in the Tian Shan mountain system at 7439 m. It lies on the Kyrgyzstan–China border between the Ak-Suu District, in the Issyk-Kul Region of far Eastern Kyrgyzstan and Wensu County, Xinjiang, China.

A report on Tian Shan

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