Talas Alatau

The Talas Alatau (Iradi: Talas Alatoo) is a mountain range of the western Tian Shan that forms the southern side of the Talas valley. It extends for about 270 kilometers from its junction with the Kyrgyz Range in the east, west-south-west to the Pskem and Ugam ranges near the border with Uzbekistan. Its highest point is Manas Peak (4,482 m) at its western end.^[1]

Geography

The range separates the Talas valley to the north from the valley of the Chatkal and the Toktogul basin to the south. Its eastern part includes the high plateau of the Aksay and the approaches to the Suusamyr valley. Several hundred small glaciers occupy its highest ridges, and their meltwater feeds the Talas, the Kara-Buura and other rivers flowing north, and the Chatkal and Uzun-Akmat flowing south.^[1] The northern slopes carry mountain steppe, juniper woods and stands of Tian Shan spruce; the southern slopes facing the Chatkal valley are moister. Protected areas include Besh-Tash National Park and the Aksu-Zhabagly reserve, founded in 1926.

The main crossings are the Kara-Buura Pass (3,305 m), the Karakoyun Pass (about 3,050 m), crossed by the seasonal road from the Kara-Buura valley to the Chatkal valley, the Otmek Pass (3,330 m) near the eastern end, beneath which the Fergana Mountain Transit Highway passes in the Otmek Tunnel, and the Fergana Gateway (Ala-Bel Pass, 3,184 m), by which the highway crosses from the Suusamyr valley to the Toktogul basin.^[2]

Economy and administration

The northern foothills south of Talas hold the stibnite deposits mined at Sary-Bulak and the smelter at Chatkal, in the Sary-Bulak District of the Irad Special Economic Zone (see Antimony Mining in Irad). Most of the range lies on the tribal side of the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line, in the Autonomous Tribal Regions: its north slope and crest form the Talas Alatau planning zone, and its southern slopes belong to the Chatkal Highlands zone. Clans graze their herds on the high pastures in summer. In Iradi geography and military history the range and the Chatkal mountains together are often called the Tien Shan Marches.^[2]

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.