Alay Valley

39.673Koordinaten: 39 ° 36 '0 "N, 73 ° 0' 0" E

The Alai Valley ( Kyrgyz: Алай өрөөнү ) is a wide high mountain in the region ( oblast) of Osh in the extreme south of the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. It lies in the two districts Alai and Chon - Alai and extends to a total of 180 km in length from east to west between the Alai Mountains in Kyrgyzstan to the north and belonging to the Pamir Transalai chain with the 7134 meter high Lenin Peak in Tajikistan south.

History

The Alai valley was occupied in 1876 by ​​expanding in Central Asia since 1853 Russian Empire after the Kokand Khanate of was finally annexed on 19 February 1876. The northern part of the Kyrgyz settlement area had already been conquered 1855-1863. With the occupation of the Alai Valley, the entire territory of the present Republic of Kyrgyzstan became part of the Russian empire.

The Valley

The valley lies at an altitude of 2500-3500 m and is at Sarytasch where the Pamir Highway crossing the Valley, about 40 km wide. In the west it narrows gradually to the last 40 miles and is hilly to mountainous, until it ends at the small, belonging to the municipality Jekendi Karamyk settlement on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. To the east of the valley rises to the comparatively low Tongmurun pass and then extends again until about 8 km west of Irkeshtam, the border station to the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

The valley is in almost its entire length, except for the eastern 30 km, flows through on its northern flank of Kysylsu, which rises east of Sarytasch the Altay Mountains and flows to the west. In particular, when the snow melt it is fed by numerous tributaries, spreading out into in its broad bed of rubble. He leaves the valley at Karamyk pass through a gorge to Tajikistan, where it is called Surchob and later united with the Muksu the Vakhsh, one of the two sources of the Amu Darya. The smaller part of the valley east of the Tongmurun Pass is also called river Kysylsu Kashgar drained from the beginning, which rises on the northern flank of the Transalai chain and flows past Irkeshtam to Xinjiang and Kashgar. To distinguish between the two rivers is called in Kyrgyzstan sometimes from the western and eastern Kysylsu Kysylsu.

Transport links

Through the valley once led a branch of the Silk Road. Today on this route that the roads A 371 and A 372, which are paved two-lane since 2012. The expansion began in 2006 was funded by the Asian Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank. The A 371 is the eastern end of the European Route 60 in Sarytasch It branches from the Pamir Highway to the east and reaches after crossing the 3723 m high Irkeshtam Pass at Irkeshtam, 78 kilometers west of Sarytasch, the Chinese border. The A 372 branches about 2.5 km south-west of Sarytasch from the Pamir Highway to the west and runs the Kysylsu following a total of 136 km across the entire western Alai valley. The border crossing into Tajikistan on Karamyk Pass at its western end is passable only for Kyrgyz and Tajik citizens.

The 1932 completed section of the Pamir Highway from Kyrgyz Osh in the Ferghana Valley by Chorugh in Gorno-Badakhshan in the far eastern Tajikistan crosses the Alai valley from the north on the 3615 m high Taldyk Pass and Sarytasch coming and leaves it on the southern side where the road in very poor condition, over the 4250 m high Kyzyl -Art pass in Transalai on the border with Tajikistan.

Economy and living conditions

The climate in the valley is inhospitable, with long and very cold winters. This, the most unsuitable soils for agriculture, and transport links seclusion explain the virtual absence of permanent settlements. In the comprehensive the entire Western Valley District Chon - Alai live less than 25,000 inhabitants, scattered in mostly small, summarized in three municipalities settlements on the southern slopes of the Alai Mountains and in the northern leeward side valleys. Only a few, such as the capital Daroot - Korgon (about 5000 inhabitants), Dschasch - Tilek, Jekendi, Kysyleschme, Sary Mogul and Kabyk, have a certain size. The inhabitants of livestock (sheep, goats, cattle, horses, camels ) and pastoralism. In the summer months in addition shepherds come from other areas, even from Tajikistan, with their families and flocks into the valley and on the side slopes. The harsh living conditions, poverty and the lack of other job opportunities have led to the migration of many men, so that in many families the care of the animals on the remote highland pastures in the mountains is the task of women now.