The Celestial Mountains – 天山

Kazakh Horse Rider overlooking the vast grass and forest lands at the western borders of China

Green Hills of Yining, Xinjiang Province, China

The Tian Shan (Chinese: 天山; pinyin: Tiān Shān; literally “celestial mountains”; Mongolian: Тэнгэр уул; Uyghur: تەڭرى تاغ‎, ULY: Tengri Tagh), also spelled Tien Shan, is a large system of mountain ranges located in Central Asia. The highest peak in the Tian Shan is Victory Peak (Jengish Chokusu), 7,439 metres (24,406 ft).

The Chinese name for Tian Shan may be derived from the Xiongnu language name qilian (祁连), which was described by Sima Qian in the Records of the Grand Historian as the homeland of the pre-Xiongnu peoples of the region, the Yuezhi, and has been said[1] to refer to the Tian Shan rather than to the range 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) further east now known by this name. The nearby Tannu-Ola Mountains (Tuvan: Таңды-Уула Tangdy-Uula) bear the same name (“heaven/celestial mountains” or “god/spirit mountains”).

Source: Wikipedia

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