The Chu-Ili Range ( kk, Шу-Іле таулары) is a range of mountains in
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental coun ...
. Administratively it is part of the
Almaty
Almaty (; kk, Алматы; ), formerly known as Alma-Ata ( kk, Алма-Ата), is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 2 million. It was the capital of Kazakhstan from 1929 to 1936 as an autonomous republic as part of ...
and
Zhambyl regions.
The
M36 Highway skirts the range along its northeastern flank.
[ Google Earth]
Geography
The Chu-Ili Range is ancient and heavily eroded. It is part of the
Trans-Ili Alatau
Ile Alatau ( kk, Ile Alatauy, ''Іле Алатауы''), also spelt as Trans-Ili Alatau, is a part of the Northern Tian Shan mountain system (ancient Mount Imeon) in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is the northernmost mountain range of Tian Sh ...
, a northern extension of the
Tian Shan
The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...
. It begins to the north of
Otar, west of the
Kurty, one of the main tributaries of the
Ili river, and stretches in a roughly northwestern direction for less than . The
Chu River
The Chu (Shu or Chüy) ( kk, Шу, Shu, شۋ; ky, Чүй, Chüy, چۉي; dng, Чў, Chwu (from , ''Chǔ''); russian: Чу, Chu) is a river in Northern Kyrgyzstan and Southern Kazakhstan. Of its total length of ,[Taukum
Taukum ( kk, Тауқұм) is a desert in the Almaty Region, Kazakhstan.Google Earth
Geography
Taukum is a sandy desert that lies in the southwestern part of the Balkhash-Alakol Basin. It extends to the south of the lower course of the Ili River ...]
desert of the
Balkhash-Alakol Basin
The Balkhash-Alakol Basin or Balkhash-Alakol Depression( kk, Балқаш-Алакөл ойысы; rus, Балхаш-Алакольская котловина), is a flat structural basin in southeastern Kazakhstan. .
The highest point of the range is
Anyrakay (Аңырақай), a high summit.
Aytau is a subrange in the northern section. Its highest point is high
Sunkar
Sunkar ( kk, Сұңқар) is a mountain in Moiynkum District, Jambyl Region, Kazakhstan.
Geography
Sunkar rises in the northern flank of the Khantau massif, the northern section of the Aitau, part of the Chu-Ili Range. With an elevation , ...
, located in the Khantau Massif, right to the east of
Khantau village. The
Maizharylgan range stretches northwestwards from the northern end of the range and the
Betpak-Dala
Betpak-Dala or Betpaqdala ( kk, Бетпақдала, ''Betpaqdala''; from Turkic ''batpak'', “swampy,” or Persian ''bedbaht'', “unlucky” and Turkic ''dala'', “plain”; Russian: Бетпак-Дала or Сeверная Голодна ...
desert to the WNW. To the south stretches the
Kindyktas, a higher and more massive spur of the northwestern Trans-Ili Alatau. The
Ashchysu is the main river having its sources in the range.
[''Kazakhstan National Encyclopedia.'' - Almaty: Kazakh encyclopedias, 2006. - T. V. -ISBN 9965-9908-5-9]
Flora
Generally, the mountains of the range have a barren look. The slopes are covered with rough desert-
steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslan ...
vegetation of
sagebrush
Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus '' Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub '' Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west.
Following is an al ...
and
fescue
''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on e ...
. Grasses, tulips, irises and poppies bloom in spring when water flows in the ravines, including ''
Tulipa regelii'', a rare species of tulip endemic to the range.
[Чу-Илийские горы](_blank)
''Great Soviet Encyclopedia
The ''Great Soviet Encyclopedia'' (GSE; ) is one of the largest Russian-language encyclopedias, published in the Soviet Union from 1926 to 1990. After 2002, the encyclopedia's data was partially included into the later ''Bolshaya rossiyskaya e ...
'' in 30 vols. — Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov
Alexander Mikhailovich Prokhorov (born Alexander Michael Prochoroff, russian: Алекса́ндр Миха́йлович Про́хоров; 11 July 1916 – 8 January 2002) was an Australian-born Soviet-Russian physicist known ...
. - 3rd ed. - M. Soviet Encyclopedia, 1969-1978. (in Russian)
/ref>
See also
* Geography of Kazakhstan
References
External links
*
Kazakhstan tourism — Chu-Ili mountains
Mountain ranges of Kazakhstan
Mountain ranges of the Tian Shan
{{Kazakhstan-geo-stub