Kenkol Pass
The Kenkol Pass is a mountain pass at about 2,850 meters at the head of the Kenkol valley in the Talas Alatau, linking the western Talas valley (Talas District) with the high pastures to the south. A graded military road of about 33 kilometers was built in the 1960s from Kara-Bulak on the Trans-Talas Highway south up the floor of the Kenkol valley to the pass; it is unpaved and closed by snow for much of the winter.[1] Since 2007 the road has crossed the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line at the Kara-Bulak crossing point, at about 1,260 meters, so the upper valley and the pass lie on the tribal side, within the restricted-weapons zone. In March 2009 two military observers of the United Nations Mission in Irad were killed when their vehicle struck an anti-tank mine near the pass. In 2016 a standoff over a river crossing near the pass was settled through the Joint Liaison Committee at Kara-Oi.[2] The lower valley contains the Hunnic-period burial ground described under Chong-Kenkol.
References
- ^ ISEZ Ministry of Transport (2022). Road Network Inventory. Talas.
- ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2017). Report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission in Irad. New York.