Tian Shan
Gebirge, Bergsteigen, Pik Pobeda und Khan Tengri
Khan Tengri Expedition
Tian Shan
With an area of almost one million square kilometers (380,000 square miles), the Tian Shan is one of the largest mountain ranges in the world.
Facts about the Tian Shan
- Highest mountain: Peak Pobeda 7,439 m (24,406 ft)
- Mountains above 7000m altitude: 2 (Peak Pobeda and Khan Tengri)
- Area: approx. 980,000 km²
Tien Shan - the location
The Tian-Shan borders the Pamir Mountains to the west. It stretches from China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, with foothills to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. To the south lies the Tarim Basin with the Taklamakan Desert and to the north the high basin of Dsungaristan. The Chinese Tian Shan is divided geographically along the road from Ürümqi to Korla into West Tian Shan and East Tian Shan. The East Tian Shan extends towards the east and is tectonically split into three further mountain belts, of which the northern one ends after 700 km with the Karlik Shan mountain ridge, not far from the Mongolian border, in the middle of the Gobi desert.
Sub-ranges of the Tien Shan
The sub-ranges of the Tian Shan are among others: Barkol Shan, Bei Shan, Bogda Shan, Ili Mountains, Irenchabirga, Karlik Shan, Kyrgyz Mountains, Kokshaal Dew, Kungej-Alatau, Kuruk Tagh, Talas-Alatau, Terskej-Alatau and Transili-Alatau.
Issy Kul
Between the mountain ranges of Kungej-Alatau and Terskej-Alatau, the high mountain lake Issyk Kul, a popular bathing and holiday lake, is located on Kyrgyzstan's territory at an altitude of 1609 m. With an area of about 6300 square kilometers, it is the second-largest mountain lake in the world. On the way from Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, to the high Tian Shan, you pass Issy Kul.
UNESCO - world natural heritage
The Tian Shan Mountains in Xinjiang were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2013, followed in 2016 by the Western Tian Shan Mountains in the states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. A total of thirteen sites belong to the World Natural Heritage, seven of them in Kazakhstan, four in Kyrgyzstan, and two in Uzbekistan. These have a total protection area of about 500,000 hectares.
Peak Pobeda & Khan Tengri
The highest mountains of Tian Shan are Peak Pobeda, the "peak of victory", at 7,439 m (24,406 ft), and Khan Tengri, in Russian. Хан Тенгры for "Lord of the Spirits", at 7,010 m (23,000 ft). The Southern Inyltschek Glacier, one of the largest non-polar valley glaciers in the world with a length of 60 kilometers, also has its origin in the widely ramified firn basin between these two mountains. The Southern Inyltschek Base Camp is the most popular starting point for climbing both mountains.