Ak-Jar

Ak-Jar ("white cliff") is a village near the Kazakh border on the semi-desert western edge of Irad, in the Karatau planning zone of the Autonomous Tribal Regions (ATR). Its population is about 910 (2022 estimate).^[1] It stands below a pale limestone escarpment that shelters it from the dust storms blowing off the Kyzylkum Fringe. Its families breed Karakul sheep, whose lamb pelts were the business of the Soviet state farm based in the village until 1994.^[2]

References

1. ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Settlements and Services in the Karatau Zone. Kara-Oi.
2. ^ Zhumabaeva, Cholpon (2016). Horses and Herders: The Pastoral Economy of the Talas Alatau, 1930–2010. Talas: Talas State University Press.