TIEN SHAN

The Tien Shan mountain range and the Takla Makan Desert. Chinese (Wade-Giles) T'ien Shan, or (Pinyin) Tian Shan, Russian Tyan Shan, great mountain system of Central Asia. Its name is Chinese for Celestial Mountains. Stretching about 1,500 miles (2,500 kilometres) from west-southwest to east-northeast, it mainly straddles the border between China and Kyrgyzstan and bisects the ancient territory of Turkistan. It is about 300 miles wide in places at its eastern and western extremities but narrows to about 220 miles in width at the centre. The Tien Shan is bounded to the north by the Dzungarian and southern Kazakstan plains and to the southeast by the Tarim (T'a-li-mu) Basin; to the southwest the Gissar and Alay ranges extend into part of the Tien Shan, making the Alay, Surkhandarya, and Gissar valleys the boundaries of the system with the Pamir mountain ranges. The Tien Shan also includes the Chu-Ili Mountains and the Qaratau Range, which extend far to the northwest into the Kazakstan lowlands. Within these limits the total area of the Tien Shan is about 386,000 square miles (1,000,000 square kilometres). The highest peaks in the Tien Shan are a central cluster of mountains forming a knot, from which ridges extend along the boundaries between China, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakstan; these peaks are Victory Peak (Pik Pobedy), which at 24,406 feet (7,439 metres) is the highest mountain in the range, and Mount Han-t'eng-ko-li (Hantengri), which reaches 22,949 feet. Chinese (Wade-Giles) T'ien Shan, or (Pinyin) Tian Shan, Russian Tyan Shan, great mountain system of Central Asia, straddling the border between China and several of the Central Asian republics that were part of the former Soviet Union. The ranges and intervening valleys and basins of the Tien Shan (Celestial Mountains) stretch for about 1,500 miles (2,500 km) in a generally east-west direction, varying in width from 220 miles (350 km) at their centre to about 300 miles (500 km) at their eastern and western extremities. The system is bounded to the north by the Dzungarian and southern Kazakstan plains, to the southeast by the Tarim Basin, and to the southwest by the Alay, Surkhandarya, and Gissar valleys and the Pamir mountain ranges. The mountains of the Tien Shan are of the alpine type, with steep slopes and glaciers along their crests. The highest peaks are located in a central cluster, from which ridges extend along the boundary between China and the Central Asian republics. The Khan-Tengri (22,949 feet ), situated in a mountain knot on the border, was long regarded as the highest peak of the Tien Shan system. In 1943, however, a Soviet expedition discovered a peak with an elevation of 24,406 feet (7,439 m), 13 miles (21 km) south of Khan-Tengri, and named the new summit Victory Peak (Pik Pobedy) in honour of Red Army victories in World War II. From the mountain hub, subranges extend both toward the west and toward the east. Many large rivers of the mountain system are fed by glacial meltwater, with the rivers' maximum flow occurring in late spring and summer. The rivers drain into Central Asia's major inland depressions, among them the Ili and Tarim basins. The Tien Shan region experiences a strong continental climate characterized by great extremes in temperature in summer and winter. Most of the precipitation falls on the windward western and northwestern slopes at elevations between 7,500 and 9,000 feet (2,300 and 2,750 m) to the east and in the interior regions the total precipitation decreases to less than 4 inches (100 mm) a year in places. The characteristic plants and animals of the Tien Shan reflect the region's distinct zones of elevation, which provide a diverse distribution of soils and vegetation. The most common landscape is steppe, occurring at elevations between 3,500 and 11,000 feet (1,000 and 3,350 m). The Kyrgyz in the west and Uighur in the east are the largest of the Tien Shan's ethnic groups. The Fergana Valley is the most densely populated area, averaging more than 500 persons per square mile (190 persons per square km); it has a large number of Chinese immigrants. Irrigated agriculture has developed in the valleys and on the lower mountain slopes, and livestock herding is practiced on the higher slopes. Industry and tourism have been developed in both the Soviet and the Chinese territories. Additional reading Literature on the Tien Shan is limited to scientific papers, such as these articles, all translated from Russian: N.A. Gvozdetskii, Spectra of Altitude Zonation of Mountain Landscapes of the USSR's Alpine System Gissaro-Alai and Tien-Shan, Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta, Seriia V, Geografiia, 1:3035 (1988), studying the use of natural resources in mountainous zones in the development of the economy, recreation, and tourism; A.G. Tarakanov, Structure and Evolution of Slope Rock Glaciers (Inner Tien-Shan and Terskei-Alatau Ridge), Geomorfologiya, no. 3, pp. 7076 (1988); G.F. Ufimtsev, Central Asian Mountain Belt, Geomorfologiya, 1:517 (1989); and V.N. Krestnikov, T.P. Belousov, and D.V. Stange, Fundamentals of Quaternary Tectonic Research in the Pamirs and Tien Shan (Asia), Bollettino di geofisica teorica ed applicata, 25(99100):393400 (1983). Nigel John Roger Allan