Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Environment
Land-locked Central Asia covers an incredible range of landscapes, from snowcapped
peaks to burning deserts, immense inland seas and rolling steppe. It is nothing less than
the transition between Europe and Asia. Years of Soviet rule have taken a massive toll
on the environment and serious problems remain, fuelled mainly by economic hardship.
Despite this, Central Asia still hides some of the wildest and pristine corners on earth.
The Land
A quick spin around the Central Asia of this topic would start on the east-
ern shores of the oil-rich Caspian Sea (actually a salt-water lake). Then
dip southeast along the low crest of the Kopet Dag Mountains between
Turkmenistan and Iran before heading east along the Turkestan plains,
following the Amu-Darya river along the desert border with Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan to its headstream, the Pyanj River, and into the high Pamir
plateau. Round the eastern nose of the 7000m snow peaks of the Tian
Shan range, skip northwestward over the Altay Mountains to float down
the massive Irtysh River and then turn west to plod along Kazakhstan's
flat, farmed, wooded border with Russia, ending in the basin of the Ural
River and the Caspian Sea.
The sort of blank which is drawn in the minds of many people by
the words 'Central Asia' is not entirely unfounded. The overwhelming
majority of the territory is flat steppe (arid grassland) and desert. These
areas include the Kazakh Steppe, the Betpak Dala (Misfortune) Steppe,
the Kyzylkum (Red Sands) desert and the Karakum (Black Sands) desert.
The Kyzylkum and Karakum combined make the fourth-largest desert
in the world.
Central Asia's mountains are part of the huge chain which swings in
a great arc from the Mongolian Altay to the Tibetan Himalaya. Central
Asia's high ground is dominated by the Pamirs, a range of rounded,
5000m to 7000m mountains known as the 'Roof of the World', which
stretch 500km across Tajikistan. With very broad, flat valleys, which are
nearly as high as the lower peaks, the Pamirs might be better described
as a plateau (
pamir
roughly means 'pasture' in local dialects). The roof
of the Pamir, Tajikistan's 7495m Koh-i Samoni, is the highest point in
Central Asia and was the highest in the USSR (when it was known as
Kommunizma). The Pamirs is probably the least explored mountain
range on earth.
Varying from 4000m to more than 7400m, the crests of the Tian
Shan form the backbone of eastern Central Asia. Known as the Celestial
Uzbekistan is
one of only two
countries in the
world defined
as double
landlocked, ie
surrounded by
countries which
are themselves
landlocked.
A 600-year-old
mausoleum
discovered on the
dried-out bed of
the Aral Sea has
indicated that
Aral levels might
be cyclical to
some degree.
EURASIAN KAZAKHSTAN
In Soviet parlance Kazakhtan was considered apart from Central Asia. While it is true
that Kazakhtan's enormous territory actually extends wetward across the Ural River
(the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia), Kazakhtan till shares many geo-
graphic, cultural, ethnic and economic similarities and ties with Central Asia 'proper'.
