The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, meaning the Mountains of Heaven or the Heavenly Mountain, is a large system of mountain ranges located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Jengish Chokusu, at 7,439 metres 24,406 ft high. Its lowest point is the Turpan Depression, which is 154 m 505 ft below sea level.
Tian Shan is north and west of the Taklamakan Desert and directly north of the Tarim Basin in the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Xinjiang in northwest China. In the south it links up with the Pamir Mountains and to north and east it meets the Altai Mountains of Mongolia.
In Western cartography as noted by the National Geographic Society, the eastern end of the Tian Shan is usually understood to be east of ÃÅrümqi, with the range to the east of that city known as the Bogda Shan as part of the Tian Shan. Chinese cartography from the Han Dynasty to the present agrees, with the Tian Shan including the Bogda Shan and Barkol ranges. The photo taken from an airplane.
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