Alatau

(redirected from Zailiyski Alatau)

Alatau

Alatau or Ala-Tau (both: äˈlätou) [Turkic,=mottled mountains], several ranges of the Tian Shan system in central Asia. The Alatau ranges are the Dzungarian, the Kungei, the Talas, the Terskei, and the Trans-Ili; all except the Talas Alatau rise to more than 16,000 ft (4,880 m). Generally forested, these ranges are chiefly inhabited by Turkic-speaking pastoral tribes. A variety of grains are grown. The Dzungarian Alatau, the northernmost and loftiest branch of the Tian Shan, forms part of the Kazakhstan-China border. Silver and lead mines and hot springs are found there (see Dzungaria). The Kungei Alatau lies N of Issyk Kul, a huge lake in the Tian Shan. The Trans-Ili Alatau, on the Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan border, supports intensive, irrigated agriculture; Almaty, the region's largest city, is in Kazakhstan on the northern slope.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Alatau

an urban-type settlement in Talgar Raion, Alma-Ata Oblast, Kazakh SSR. It is located 16 km northeast of Alma-Ata. The population in 1968 was 4,300.

Alatau was formed in 1958 as a scientists’ town around the Scientific Research Institute for Nuclear Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR; an atomic reactor was set up in 1967.