Chatkal Gorge

The Chatkal Gorge is the series of canyons through which the lower Chatkal leaves the Chatkal valley for Uzbekistan, in the Chatkal Highlands planning zone of the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Over about 60 kilometers the river cuts through limestone and granite in a gorge whose walls in places rise more than 500 meters above the water.^[1] Boulder-strewn rapids of grades IV and V make it a destination for expedition rafting, which has been organized from Uzbekistan and from Talas since the 1980s. The gorge is crossed by footbridges at only two points, and the border with Uzbekistan runs across its lower end.^[2]

References

1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
2. ^ Central Asian Rafting Review (2016). 'The Lower Chatkal: A River Guide.' No. 9, pp. 12–29.