Ilan Uti - (Īlān Ūtī) also called as The Āq Kūtal (White Pass), is a strategic passage between

Samarkand Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central As ...

and the

Great Steppe The Eurasian Steppe, also called the Great Steppe or The Steppes, is the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia in the temperate grasslands, savannas and shrublands biome. It stretches through Manchuria, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Siberia, Europe ...

, separating the Zarafshān Valley from Jizakh, Ūrā Tippa and Khojand. Located two hours east of Samarqand, it formed an extremely narrow gorge which was said to teem with snakes. This earned the pass the name Snake Pass. Many travelers passing through in the nineteenth century called it the “Gateway of Tamerlane”

Geography

Ilon Uti is a mountain gorge with a pass between the Malguzar and Nurata mountain ranges, located in the narrow valley of the Sangzor River in the

Jizzakh region Jizzakh Region is one of the regions of Uzbekistan. It is located in the center/east of the country. It borders Tajikistan to the south and south-east, Samarqand Region to the west, Navoiy Region to the north-west, Kazakhstan to the north, and ...

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

. It is 16–18 km long and 200–500 m wide, with the riverbed narrowing to 30 m at its narrowest point. The absolute elevation of the pass ranges from 450 to 550 m, while the surrounding mountain slopes rise to 650–700 m. The ancient Turkic name of the pass was Temir Qapigh ("Iron Gate"). Additionally, it has been historically referred to as the "Jizzakh Road" and the "Sangzor Valley", second most popular names is " Gateway of Tamerlane " A local mountain-valley wind blows through the pass, with an average speed of 2.3–2.8 m/s, reaching 25–28 m/s at its strongest. The slopes of Ilon Uti rise steeply on both sides. The Malguzar Mountains consist of

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, marbled limestone, and porphyrites from the Lower Paleozoic, while the Qoytash Mountains are composed of intrusive rocks such as

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

and

granodiorite Granodiorite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock similar to granite, but containing more plagioclase feldspar than orthoclase feldspar. The term banatite is sometimes used informally for various rocks ranging from gra ...

s. The Sangzor Valley was formed in the early

Middle Pleistocene The Chibanian, more widely known as the Middle Pleistocene (its previous informal name), is an Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale or a Stage (stratigraphy), stage in chronostratigraphy, being a division of the Pleistocen ...

due to the river eroding the Malguzar Mountains, cutting through the rock. During this period, tectonic movements caused the Mirzachul region to subside, directing the river's flow into its present course.

History

Bukhari, the chronicler of Ubaydallah Khan (r. 1702-1711), twice mentions ''Äq-Kütal'' among the places on the Mawarannahr- Qazaq frontier, but does not specify its position. According to 17th century geography, ''Äq-Kütal'' separated

and the Zarafshan Valley from Khujand, Ura-Tepe and Dizzaq and other eastern districts. A 19th century author depicts ''Aq-Kütal'' as a place on the route from

to Jizaq and Zamin.Muhammad Hakim Khan, "Muntakhab I" 185 In its narrower sense, the "White Pass" ''(Äq-Kütal)'' probably corresponds to a defile of the Jizaq river on the hill route linking Samarqand with Jizaq.

Ilanutti inscriptions

Rock inscriptions discovered at the site - that some 19th century travellers call "Timur's Gate" - underline its strategic importance between the Samarkand oasis and the

. One epigraph commemorates the safe return of the Timurid Mirza

Ulugh Beg Mīrzā Muhammad Tarāghāy bin Shāhrukh (; ), better known as Ulugh Beg (; 22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as well as an astronomer and mathematician. Ulugh Beg was notable for his work in astronomy-related ma ...

from a campaign to the " land of the Moghuls". Another inscription reports how in 979/1571-72 the Shaybanid Abdalläh Khän's forces confronted 400.000 men from Turkistan, Tashkent, Farghana and the Dasht-i Qipchaq, slaying so many enemies that the Jizaq river was bloodstained for a month.

File:Tamerlane's gate, surroundings of Dizak, 1890.jpg, Photograph of gorge by

Paul Nadar Paul Nadar (8 February 1856 – 1 September 1939) was a French photographer and the son of Nadar, who was also a photographer, and the grandson of Victor Tournachon, who was a printer and bookseller. Life Nadar was born on 8 February 1856 in P ...

File:Syr-Darya Oblast. Ilan Utinsk Gorge WDL3882.png, Photograph of Ilan Uti gorge from Turkestan Album

References

{{reflist Landforms of Uzbekistan Jizzakh Region