The Kunlun Mountains constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia , extending for more than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi). In the broadest sense, the chain forms the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau south of the Tarim Basin . Located in Western China , the Kunlun Mountains have been known as the "Forefather of Mountains" in China.
34-709: The Siachen Muztagh is a remote subrange of the eastern Karakoram Range . Close to 60% is in area controlled by China , 40% in area controlled by India . Pakistan claims the Indian-controlled portion as part of the Siachen Conflict . India claims the Chinese-controlled portion. India administers its portion as part of the Union Territory of Ladakh . China administers its portion as part of Xinjiang province. All available maps and atlases (including
68-709: A French expedition to the range in 1936. The film won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival of 1937. Greg Mortenson details the Karakoram, and specifically K2 and the Balti , extensively in his book Three Cups of Tea , about his quest to build schools for children in the region. K2 Kahani (The K2 Story) by Mustansar Hussain Tarar describes his experiences at K2 base camp. Kunlun Mountains The exact definition of
102-748: A detailed delineation of the Siachen Muztagh's limits on the 1990 Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research "Karakoram Sheet 2" map) define the range as between the Shaksgam River on the north, the Urdok Glacier on the northwest (Urdok in Uyghur meaning duck), the Siachen Glacier on the southwest, the Teram Shehr Glacier and Rimo Glacier, and Indira Col on the south, and the uppermost Yarkand River on
136-483: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Karakoram The Karakoram ( / ˌ k ɑːr ə ˈ k ɔːr əm , ˌ k ær -/ ) is a mountain range in the Kashmir region spanning the border of Pakistan , China , and India , with the northwestern extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan . Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the jurisdiction of Gilgit-Baltistan , which
170-514: Is a list for the highest peaks of the Karakoram. Included are some of the mountains named with a K code, the most famous of which is the K2 (mountain) . The majority of the highest peaks are in the Gilgit–Baltistan region administered by Pakistan. Baltistan has more than 100 mountain peaks exceeding 6,100 metres (20,000 ft) height from sea level. The naming and division of the various subranges of
204-643: Is a semi-mythical region not far from the source of the Yellow River. The Kunlun Mountains entered Chinese ideology during the Warring States period (475–221 BCE), and have become closely integrated into Chinese culture. In the Book of Mountains and Seas , the Kunlun Mountains are mentioned: Which means "The hill of Kunlun, which is the capital of the emperor, and the god of the land." Gu Jiegang divides
238-529: Is about 500 km (311 mi) in length and is the most glaciated place on Earth outside the polar regions . The Siachen Glacier (76 km (47 mi) long) and Biafo Glacier (63 km (39 mi) long) are the second- and third-longest glaciers outside the polar regions. The Karakoram is bounded on the east by the Aksai Chin plateau, on the northeast by the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and on
272-411: Is in the center of the Kunlun Mountains; its highest points are Ulugh Muztagh (6,973 m) and Bukadaban Feng (6,860 m). In the eastern Kunlun Mountains the highest peaks are Yuzhu Peak (6,224 m) and Amne Machin [also Dradullungshong] (6,282 m); the latter is the major eastern peak of the Kunlun Mountains and is thus considered as the eastern edge of the Kunlun Mountains. The mountain range formed at
306-572: Is located in Pakistan. Its highest (and the world's second-highest ) peak, K2 , is located in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan . It begins in the Wakhan Corridor (Afghanistan) in the west, encompasses the majority of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan and extends into Ladakh (controlled by India) and Aksai Chin (controlled by China). It is part of the larger Trans-Himalayan mountain ranges. The Karakoram
340-612: Is one of the chief northern ranges of the Kunlun. Its northeastern extension Qilian Shan is another main northern range of the Kunlun. In the south main extension is the Min Shan . Bayan Har Mountains , a southern branch of the Kunlun Mountains, forms the watershed between the catchment basins of China 's two longest rivers, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River . The highest mountain of
374-489: Is the second-highest mountain range on Earth and part of a complex of ranges that includes the Pamir Mountains , Hindu Kush , and Himalayas . The range contains 18 summits higher than 7,500 m (24,600 ft) in elevation , with four above 8,000 m (26,000 ft): K2 (8,611 m (28,251 ft) AMSL ) (the second-highest peak on Earth), Gasherbrum I , Broad Peak , and Gasherbrum II . The range
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#1732855523171408-415: Is the only motorable pass across the range. The Shimshal Pass (which does not cross an international border) is the only other pass still in regular use. The Karakoram mountain range has been referred to in a number of novels and movies. Rudyard Kipling refers to the Karakoram mountain range in his novel Kim , which was first published in 1900. Marcel Ichac made a film titled Karakoram , chronicling
442-661: The Chinese mythology system into the Kunlun system and the Penglai system based on the eastern and western regions. He believes that the myth of Kunlun In mythology, Kunlun Mountain is the birthplace and ancestral place of the Chinese nation. In mythology, Kunlun Mountain is the center of heaven and earth. It goes up to the sky and is the staircase to the sky. The "Kunlun Mythology" system takes Kunlun Mountain as an iconic place, and mainly focuses on
476-537: The Eastern Hemisphere (after Mount Kilimanjaro ) and one of Volcanic Seven Summits by elevation. (Mount Damavand is the highest volcano in Asia, not the Kunlun cones.) The last known eruption in the volcanic group was on May 27, 1951. Legendary and mystical mountains are a long-standing aspect of Chinese civilization. Kunlun is originally the name of a mythical mountain believed to be a Taoist paradise . Kunlun
510-638: The 1910s and 1920s established most of the geography of the region. The name Karakoram was used in the early 20th century, for example by Kenneth Mason , for the range now known as the Baltoro Muztagh . The term is now used to refer to the entire range from the Batura Muztagh above Hunza in the west to the Saser Muztagh in the bend of the Shyok River in the east. Floral surveys were carried out in
544-557: The Himalaya and 2.2 percent of the Alps . Mountain glaciers may serve as an indicator of climate change, advancing and receding with long-term changes in temperature and precipitation. The Karakoram glaciers are slightly retreating, unlike the Himalayas where glaciers are losing mass at significantly higher rate, many Karakoram glaciers are covered in a layer of rubble which insulates the ice from
578-506: The Karakoram is much less inhabited than parts of the Himalayas further east. European explorers first visited early in the 19th century, followed by British surveyors starting in 1856. The Muztagh Pass was crossed in 1887 by the expedition of Colonel Francis Younghusband and the valleys above the Hunza River were explored by General Sir George K. Cockerill in 1892. Explorations in
612-918: The Karakoram is not universally agreed upon. However, the following is a list of the most important subranges, following Jerzy Wala. The ranges are listed roughly west to east. [REDACTED] 1 ： Sia La , [REDACTED] 2 ： Bilafond La , [REDACTED] 3 ： Gyong La , [REDACTED] 4 ： Sasser Pass , [REDACTED] 5 ： Burji La , [REDACTED] 6 ： Machulo La , [REDACTED] 7 ： Naltar Pass , [REDACTED] 8 ： Hispar Pass , [REDACTED] 9 ： Shimshal Pass , [REDACTED] 10 ： Karakoram Pass , [REDACTED] 11 ： Turkistan La Pass , [REDACTED] 12 ： Windy Gap , [REDACTED] 13 ： Mustagh Pass , [REDACTED] 14 ： Sarpo Laggo Pass , [REDACTED] 15 ： Khunjerab Pass , [REDACTED] 16 ： Mutsjliga Pass , [REDACTED] 17 ： Mintaka Pass , [REDACTED] 18 ： Kilik Pass Passes from west to east are: The Khunjerab Pass
646-558: The Kunlun Mountains is the Kunlun Goddess Peak (7,167 m) in the Keriya area of the western Kunlun Mountains. Some authorities claim that the Kunlun extends further northwest-wards as far as Kongur Tagh (7,649 m) and the famous Muztagh Ata (7,546 m). But these mountains are physically much more closely linked to the Pamir group (ancient Mount Imeon ). The Arka Tagh (Arch Mountain)
680-709: The Kunlun Mountains varies over time. Older sources used Kunlun to mean the mountain belt that runs across the center of China, that is, Altyn Tagh along with the Qilian and Qin Mountains . Recent sources have the Kunlun range forming most of the south side of the Tarim Basin and then continuing east, south of the Altyn Tagh. Sima Qian ( Records of the Grand Historian , scroll 123) says that Emperor Wu of Han sent men to find
714-514: The Kunlun Volcanic Group. They are not volcanic mountains, but cones. As such, they are not counted among the world volcanic mountain peaks. The group, however, musters the heights of 5,808 metres (19,055 ft) above sea level ( 35°30′N 80°12′E / 35.5°N 80.2°E / 35.5; 80.2 ). If they were considered volcanic mountains, they would constitute the highest volcano in Asia and China and second highest in
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#1732855523171748-551: The People's Republic of China for UNESCO and have been tentatively added to the list. Karakoram is a Turkic term meaning black gravel . The Central Asian traders originally applied the name to the Karakoram Pass . Early European travellers, including William Moorcroft and George Hayward , started using the term for the range of mountains west of the pass, although they also used the term Muztagh (meaning, "Ice Mountain") for
782-699: The Shyok River catchment and from Panamik to Turtuk village by Chandra Prakash Kala during 1999 and 2000. The Karakoram is in one of the world's most geologically active areas, at the plate boundary between the Indo-Australian plate and the Eurasian plate . A significant part, somewhere between 28 and 50 percent, of the Karakoram Range is glaciated covering an area of more than 15,000 square kilometres or 5,800 square miles, compared to between 8 and 12 percent of
816-449: The east. Its highest peak is Teram Kangri I, 7,462 metres (24,482 feet). The following is a table of the peaks in the Siachen Muztagh which are over 7,200 meters (23,622 feet) in elevation and have over 500 meters (1,524 feet) of topographic prominence . (This is a common criterion for peaks of this stature to be independent.) This article related to a location in Jammu and Kashmir
850-702: The infamous Taklamakan desert, and the Gobi Desert . A number of important rivers flow from the range including the Karakash River ('Black Jade River') and the Yurungkash River ('White Jade River'), which flow through the Khotan Oasis into the Taklamakan Desert . To the south of the Kunlun is the sparsely populated Changtang region, which forms part of the Tibetan Plateau . Altyn-Tagh or Altun Range
884-586: The myths and stories of related characters such as the Yellow Emperor and the Queen Mother of the West ( Xi Wang Mu ). Stories such as Kuafu chasing the sun, Gonggong's anger touching Buzhou Mountain, and Chang'e flying to the moon all originate from Kunlun mythology. Mao Dun pointed out: According to legend, King Mu (976–922 BCE, Zhou dynasty ) was the first to visit this paradise. There he supposedly found
918-637: The north by the river valleys of the Yarkand and Karakash rivers beyond which lie the Kunlun Mountains . At the northwest corner are the Pamir Mountains . The southern boundary of the Karakoram is formed, west to east, by the Gilgit , Indus and Shyok rivers , which separate the range from the northwestern end of the Himalaya range proper. These rivers flow northwest before making an abrupt turn southwestward towards
952-511: The north, the Karakoram glaciers joined those from the Kunlun Mountains and flowed down to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) in the Tarim basin. While the current valley glaciers in the Karakoram reach a maximum length of 76 kilometres (47 mi), several of the ice-age valley glacier branches and main valley glaciers, had lengths up to 700 kilometres (430 mi). During the Ice Age, the glacier snowline
986-618: The northern edges of the Cimmerian Plate during its collision, in the Late Triassic , with Siberia , which resulted in the closing of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean . The range has very few roads and in its 3,000 km length is crossed by only two. In the west, Highway 219 traverses the range en route from Yecheng, Xinjiang to Lhatse, Tibet. Further east, Highway 109 crosses between Lhasa and Golmud . Over 70 volcanic cones form
1020-645: The plains of Pakistan . Roughly in the middle of the Karakoram range is the Karakoram Pass , which was part of a historic trade route between Ladakh and Yarkand that is now inactive. The Tashkurghan National Nature Reserve and the Pamir Wetlands National Nature Reserve in the Karalorun and Pamir mountains have been nominated for inclusion in UNESCO in 2010 by the National Commission of
1054-586: The range now known as Karakoram. Later terminology was influenced by the Survey of India , whose surveyor Thomas Montgomerie in the 1850s gave the labels K1 to K6 (K for Karakoram) to six high mountains visible from his station at Mount Haramukh in Kashmir Valley , codes extended further up to more than thirty. In traditional Indian geography the mountains were known as Krishnagiri (black mountains), Kanhagiri and Kanheri . Due to its altitude and ruggedness,
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1088-461: The source of the Yellow River and gave the name Kunlun to the mountains at its source. The name seems to have originated as a semi-mythical location in the classical Chinese text Classic of Mountains and Seas . From the Pamirs of Tajikistan , the Kunlun Mountains run east through southern Xinjiang to Qinghai province. They stretch along the southern edge of what is now called the Tarim Basin ,
1122-586: The warmth of the sun. Where there is no such insulation, the rate of retreat is high. In the last ice age , a connected series of glaciers stretched from western Tibet to Nanga Parbat , and from the Tarim basin to the Gilgit District . To the south, the Indus glacier was the main valley glacier, which flowed 120 kilometres (75 mi) down from Nanga Parbat massif to 870 metres (2,850 ft) elevation. In
1156-1505: Was about 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) lower than today. Legend： 1： K2 , 2： Gasherbrum I, K5 , 3： Broad Peak , 4： Gasherbrum II, K4 , 5： Gasherbrum III, K3a , 6： Gasherbrum IV, K3 , 7： Distaghil Sar , 8： Kunyang Chhish , 9： Masherbrum, K1 , 10： Batura Sar, Batura I , 11： Rakaposhi , 12： Batura II , 13： Kanjut Sar , 14： Saltoro Kangri, K10 , 15： Batura III , 16： Saser Kangri I, K22 , 17： Chogolisa , 18： Shispare , 19： Trivor Sar , 20： Skyang Kangri , 21： Mamostong Kangri, K35 , 22： Saser Kangri II , 23： Saser Kangri III , 24： Pumari Chhish , 25： Passu Sar , 26： Yukshin Gardan Sar , 27： Teram Kangri I , 28： Malubiting , 29： K12 , 30： Sia Kangri , 31： Momhil Sar , 32： Skil Brum , 33： Haramosh Peak , 34： Ghent Kangri , 35： Ultar Sar , 36： Rimo massif , 37： Sherpi Kangri , 38： Yazghil Dome South , 39： Baltoro Kangri , 40： Crown Peak , 41： Baintha Brakk , 42： Yutmaru Sar , 43： K6 , 44： Muztagh Tower , 45： Diran , 46： Apsarasas Kangri I , 47： Rimo III , 48： Gasherbrum V Here
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