TAYGETUS (Tau-ye ros or T a67Erov, mod.
The Dzungarian Ala-tau Mountains, which separate it from Kulja, extend south-west towards the river Ili, with an average height of 6000 ft.
In the south Semiryechensk embraces the intricate systems of the Ala-tau and the Tian-shan.
The Trans-Ili Ala-tau and the Kunghei Ala-tau, stretch along the north shore of Lake Issyk-kul, both ranging from io,000 to 15,000 ft.
Another mountain-complex of much lower elevation runs north-westwards from the Trans-Ili Ala-tau towards the southern extremity of Lake Balkash.
Of the Pamir, the Tian-shan and the Ala-tau mountain regions, and farther N.E.
As follows: Savaii, Manono, Apolima, Upolu, Fanuatapu, Manua, Nuutele and Nuulua, belonging to Germany, and Tutuila, Anua, Ofu, Olosenga, Tau and Rose, belonging to the United States of America.
Next may be named the Ala-tau, on the prolongation of the Tian-shan, flanking the Syr on the north, and rising to 14,000 or 15,000 ft.
As regards the development of the form of the pastoral staff, there are four principal types: (I) staves with a simple crook, the oldest form, which survived in Ireland until the 12th century; (2) staves with a ball or knob at the top, a rare form which did not long survive as a pastoral staff; (3) staves with a horizontal crook, so-called Tau-staves, used especially by abbots and surviving until the 13th century; (4) staves with crook bent inwards.
Thence the boundary describes a sinuous line, following the Great Wall, and thus includes the Ordos (Ho-tau) and Alashan (Si-tao), and reaches its most southern point in 36° 40' N., 104° 20' E.
Of Lake Issyk-kul, at the northern foot of the Trans-Ili Ala-tau Mountains, at an altitude of 2440 ft.
It occupies a strategical position at the west end of the valley between the Alexander range and the Ala-tau (or Talas-tau), at the meeting of commercial routes from (1) Vyernyi and Siberia beyond, from the north-east, (2) the Aral Sea and Orenburg (connected with it by rail since 1905) to the north-west, and (3) Ferghana and Bokhara to the south.
The popular pronunciation to and tau for tab has given rise to the spellings Toris and Tauris met with in older travellers and used even now.
The Peter the Great range, or Periokh-tau, in Karateghin, south of the valley of the Vakhsh, runs west-south-west to east-north-east for about 130 m., and is higher than the Hissar range.
And it is indeed the fact that large portions of the vast region comprised between the lower Volga, the AralIrtysh water-divide, the Dzungarian Ala-tau, and the outliers of the Tian-shan and Hindu-kush systems are actually covered with Aralo-Caspian deposits, nearly always a yellowish-grey clay, though occasionally they assume the character of a more or less compact sandstone of the same colour.
ALA-TAU ("Variegated Mountains"), the name of six mountain ranges in Asiatic Russia.
Three of these are in the government of Semiryechensk in Central Asia, all belonging to the Tianshan system: - (r) the Terskei Ala-tau, south of and parallel to the lake of Issyk-kul; (2) the Kunghei Ala-tau, and (3) the Trans-Ili Ala-tau, both N.
Of and parallel to the same lake; and (4) the Dzungarian Ala-tau, lying N.
The Dzungarian Ala-tau reach a maximum altitude of r 1,000 ft.
From the middle of the Alexander Range another range (5) called Ala-tau, or Talastau, strikes west by south.
The name Ala-tau also enters into the designation of (6), a range between the upper Yenisei and the upper Ob, in the government of Tomsk, namely, the Kuznetsk Ala-tau, forming an outlier of the Altai Mountains, and reaching 6000-7000 ft.
The Kuznetsk Ala-tau range, on the left bank of the Abakan, runs north-east into the government of Yeniseisk, while a complexus of imperfectly mapped mountains (Chukchut, Salair, Abakan) fills up the country northwards towards the Siberian railway and westwards towards the Ob.
The Tom and its numerous tributaries rise on the northern slopes of the Kuznetsk Ala-tau, and their fertile valleys are occupied by a 1 Mr S.
The Altai proper is rich in silver, copper, lead and zinc ores, while in the Kuznetsk Ala-tau, gold, iron and coal are the chief mineral resources.
The Kuznetsk Ala-tau mines are only now beginning to be explored, while the copper, and perhaps also the silver, ores of the Altai proper were worked by the mysterious prehistoric race of the Chudes at a time when the use of iron was not yet known.
But the chief wealth of the northern Altai is in the Kuznetsk coal-basin, also containing iron-ores, which fills up a valley between the Kuznetsk Ala-tau and the Salair range for a length of about 270 m., with a width of about 65 m.
The virgin forests of the Kuznetsk Ala-tau - the Chern, or Black Forest of the Russians - are peopled by Tatars, who live in very small settlements, sometimes of the Russian type, but mostly in wooden yurts or huts of the Mongolian fashion.
In both ranges, too, some of the highest summits stand on spurs of the main range, not on the main range itself; as Mont Perdu and Maladetta lie south of the main backbone of the Pyrenees, so Mount Elbruz and Kasbek, Dykh-tau, Koshtan-tau, Janga-tau and Shkara - all amongst the loftiest peaks of the Caucasus - stand on a subsidiary range north of the principal range or on spurs connecting the two.
Peak), 16,410 ft.; Fytnargyn-tau, 13,790 ft.; Gezeh-tau, 14,140 ft.; and Kaltber, 14,460 ft.
The best known are the Bezingi or Ullu, between Dykh-tau and Janga-tau, 102 m.
Long, from Shkara and Janga-tau; Tuyber from Tetnuld, 6z m.
The best known in this section are the three Baksan passes of Chiper (io,800 and 10,720 ft.), Bassa (9950 ft.) and Donguz-orun (10,490 ft.), south of Elbruz; those of Becho (11,070 ft.), Akh-su (12,465 ft.), Bak (10,220 ft.), Adyr-su (12,305 ft.) and Bezingi (10,090 ft.), between Elbruz and Dykh-tau; and those of Shari-vizk (11,560 ft.), Edena, Pasis-mta or Godivizk (11,270 ft.), Shtulu-vizk (10,860 ft.), Fytnargyn (11,130 ft.), between Dykh-tau and Adai-khokh; the Bakh-fandak (9570 ft.), between Adai-khohk and Kasbek; and the two Karaul passes (11,680 and 11,270 ft.) and Gurdzi-vizk (10,970 ft.), connecting the valley of the Urukh with that of the Rion.
Here the principal peaks, again found for the most part on the spurs and subsidiary ranges, are the Tsmiakom-khokh (13,570 ft.), Shan-tau (1 4,53 0 ft.), Kidenais-magali (13,840 ft.), Zilga-khokh (12,645 ft.), Zikari (12,565 ft.), Choukhi (12,110 ft.), Julti-dagh (12,430 ft.), Alakhun-dagh (12,690 ft.) and Maghi-dagh (12,445 ft.).
18 a Terek, has its sources, not in the main ranges of the Caucasus, but in an outlying group of mountains near Pyatigorsk, the highest summit of which, Besh-tau, does not exceed 4600 ft.
The latter, including such ranges as the Chingiz-tau, Chu-Ili Mountains, Kandyk-tau and Khan-tau, the Ferghana range, the Kara-tau and the Nura-tau, are geologically of later origin than the great border ranges of the Tianshan proper, e.g.
Trans-Alai, Alai, Kokshal-tau, Alexander range, Terskei Ala-tau, Kunghei Ala-tau, Trans-Ili Ala-tau and Dzungarian Ala-tau.
Mushketov under the appropriate name of Turanian basin - the Kara-tau Mountains, between the Chu and the Syr-darya rivers, being considered as the dividing line between the two.
The Tian-shan Mountains skirt East Turkestan on the north-east, where the Kokshal-tau range rises to 16,000 to 18,000 ft.
From it three routes start for West Turkestan; the one principally used climbs over the Bedel pass (13,000 ft.) in the Kokshal-tau and makes a detour round the east and along the north side of the Issyk-kul, while the others cross over the Muz-art pass (12,000 ft.), on the northeast shoulder of Khan-tengri, and the Terek pass (12,730 ft.) respectively, the latter into Ferghana.
The Tarbagatai Mountains and their north-western continuation, the Chinghiz-tau, are sometimes considered to belong orographically to the Altai system; but there are good reasons for regarding them as an independent range.
Excluding these mountains, the northernmost member of the Tian-shan system is the Dzungarian Ala-tau in 45°- 45° 3 o ' N.
The last bifurcates into the Trans-Ili Ala-tau and the Kunghei Ala-tau, skirting the north shore of Lake Issyk-kul.'
The west continuation of the Kunghei Ala-tau is the Alexander range, which in its turn bifurcates into the Talas-tau and the Kara-tau, this last stretching far out into the desert beside the Syr-.
South of Lake Issyk-kul, which appears to be a hollow of tectonic origin, runs the Terskei Ala-tau, separating the lake from the high valley of the Naryn.
On the south side of the Naryn valley comes the Kokshal-tau, called also in part the Bozadyr, striking south-west from the Khan-tengri knot and terminating in the Terek-tau (40° 30' N.
And 74°-76° E.), at which point the system again bifurcates, the Ferghana Mountains running away from it towards the north-west until it, or rather its prolongation the Uzun-tau, strikes against the Talas-tau.
From this latter point, again, the Chotkal-tau strikes away to the south-west, screening the valley of Ferghana against the Aralo-Caspian desert.
The other arm of the bifurcation, situated farther south, and beginning at the Terek-tau, is double; it consists of the Alai and Trans-Alai ranges, continued westwards in the Karateghin, Zarafshan, Hissar and Turkestan ranges, though orographically the Trans-Alai ought probably to be described as the border-ridge of the Pamir plateau.
Closely connected with the Khan-tengri knot are the Khalyk-tau on the east, and on the west three diverging lines of elevation, namely the Terskei Ala-tau or Kirghiz Ala-tau, overhanging the south shore of Issyk-kul; the Kokshal-tau, stretching away southwest as far as the Terez Mountains between Kashgar and Ferghana; and, intermediate between these two, the successive ranges of the Sary-jas, Kulu-tau, and Ak-shiryak.
To the snowcapped ridge of the Terskei Ala-tau, the peaks of which ascend to 15,000-16,500 ft.
The Terskei Ala-tau forms a sharply accentuated, continuous, snow-clad range.
9,500 ft.) of Baron Kaulbars, the Kara-kol, and the Suzamir-tau, until it abuts upon the Talas-tau.
The country immediately south of the Terskei Ala-tau consists " of broad, shallow basins running east and west in en echelon pattern, and lying at 10,000 ft.
1 The passes over the Terskei Ala-tau and the plateau country to the south lie at great altitudes - at 13,560 ft.
The snowline on the Terskei Ala-tau runs at 11,500 ft.
The summits of the Kulu-tau or Kyulyu-tau reach 13,700 to 14,750 ft.; those of the Ak-skiryak 15,000-16,000 ft., overtopping by some2000-3000ft.
The Kokshal-tau, which consists of several parallel ranges, is truly alpine in character and bears large glaciers, which send out polyp-like arms into U-shaped valleys, behind which the mountain peaks tower up into sharp-cut, angular " matterhorns."
At its south-western extremity the Kokshal-tau merges in the Kokiya Mountains (16,000-18,000 ft.), which at their other end are met by the Alai Mountains and the Terek-tau.
Thus the Kuruktagh are linked, by the Kok-teke, on to the Khalyk-tau of the Khantengri group. The Khaidyk-tau, which are crossed by the passes of Tash-againyn (7610 ft.) and Kotyl (9900 ft.), are not improbably connected orographically with the Trans-Ili Ala-tau, or its twin parallel range, the Kunghei Ala-tau, in the west, in that they are an eastern prolongation of the latter.
To W.S.W.) link between the Khaidyktau and the Khalyk-tau and are crossed by passes which V.
The Iren-khabirga, like the Bogdo-ola and the Terskei Ala-tau, are capped with perpetual snow.
