Manas Peak (Irad)

Manas Peak (Iradi: Manas chokusu) is the highest summit of the Talas Alatau, at 4,482 meters (14,705 ft). It stands at the western end of the range, where the Talas Alatau meets the Pskem and Ugam ranges, close to Irad's border with Uzbekistan; the course of the international boundary across the summit massif has never been demarcated on the ground.^[1] The peak carries several small glaciers, including the Manas Glacier, whose meltwater feeds headwaters of the Talas and of rivers flowing west toward the Syr Darya. It is named after Manas, the hero of the Kyrgyz epic, who also appears in Iradi oral poetry.^[2] The Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory, founded in 1964, stands on its northwestern ridge, on the tribal side of the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line. Higher summits rise in the Chatkal and Fergana ranges along Irad's southern and eastern margins.

References

1. ^ Talas State University Press (2008). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas.
2. ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Fifty Years on Manas: The Manas Peak Glaciological Observatory, 1964–2014. Talas.