Tian Shan

The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, is a large system of mountain ranges in Central Asia crossing Kyrgyzstan, China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, extending about 2,900 kilometers east from Tashkent. Its highest peak, Jengish Chokusu, reaches 7,439 meters in Kyrgyzstan, while its lowest point, the Turpan Depression, lies 154 meters below sea level, positioning the range just north and west of the Taklamakan Desert and the Tarim Basin. The Tian Shan forms part of the Himalayan orogenic belt, raised by the ongoing collision of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates during the Cenozoic era, a far-field effect of the same collision that built the Himalayas themselves; its exposed rock is classified as Mesozoic to Cenozoic in age. This entity documents the Tian Shan specifically as a geological formation, a Central Asian mountain system uplifted as a far-field effect of the India-Eurasia collision.