Teshik-Talaa

Teshik-Talaa ("pierced steppe") is a karst plateau in the Karatau, in the Karatau planning zone of the Autonomous Tribal Regions. Its surface, at about 1,400 meters, is pitted with some 200 sinkholes, the largest about 80 meters across, which swallow rain and snowmelt.^[1] The water drains through caves in the limestone and reappears in springs at the foot of the plateau. Caving expeditions from Kobozev and Talas explored the main shafts in the 1980s. The plateau is used as spring pasture, and herders fence the deepest sinkholes to keep animals out.^[2]

References

1. ^ Talas State University, Faculty of Geography (2018). Physical Geography of Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.
2. ^ Talas State University Press (2009). Archaeological Map of the Karatau and the Kyzylkum Fringe. Talas.