| Dzungarian Gate | |
|---|---|
| Alatao Pass | |
 Satellite photograph of the Dzungarian Gate, the pale,fault-lined valley running betweenLake Alakol andLake Ebinur through theDzungarian Alatau mountain range. | |
| Location | China–Kazakhstan border |
| Range | Dzungarian Alatau |
| Coordinates | 45°21′N82°25′E / 45.35°N 82.42°E /45.35; 82.42 |
  Dzungarian Gate  Dzungarian Gate | |
 Interactive map of Dzungarian Gate | |
| Dzungarian Gate | |||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 阿拉山口 | ||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 阿拉山口 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Alatao Pass | ||||||
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| Kazakh name | |||||||
| Kazakh | Жетісу қақпасы, Жоңғар қақпасы جەتىسۋ قاقپاسى، جوڭعار قاقپاسى Jetısu qaqpasy, Joñğar qaqpasy | ||||||
| Mongolian name | |||||||
| Mongolian | Зүүнгарын хаалга Züüngariin khaalga | ||||||
TheDzungarian Gate, also known as theAltai Gap, is a geographically and historically significantmountain pass betweenCentral Asia and China.[1] It has been described as the "one and only gateway in the mountain-wall which stretches from China toAfghanistan, over a distance of three thousand miles [4,800 km]."[2] Given its association with details in a story related byHerodotus, it has been linked to the location of legendaryHyperborea.[3]
The Dzungarian Gate (Chinese:阿拉山口;pinyin:Ālā Shānkǒu;Kazakh:Жетісу қақпасыJetısu qaqpasy or Жоңғар қақпасыJoñğar qaqpasy) is a straight valley which penetrates theDzungarian Alatau mountain range along the border betweenKazakhstan andXinjiang, China.[4] It currently serves as arailway corridor between China and the West. Historically, it has been noted as a convenient pass suitable for riders on horseback between the westernEurasian steppe and lands further east, and for its fierce and almost constant winds.[5]
In hisHistories, Herodotus relates travelers' reports of a land in the northeast wheregriffins guardgold and where the North Wind issues from a mountain cave. Given the parallels between Herodotus' story and modern reports,[6][7] scholars such asCarl Ruck,[8] J.D.P. Bolton[9] and Ildikó Lehtinen[10] have speculated on a connection between the Dzungarian Gate and the home ofBoreas, the North Wind ofGreek mythology, with legend describing the people who live on the other side of this home of the North Wind as a peaceful, civilized people who eat grain and live by the sea.
The windswept valley of the Dzungarian Gate, 6 mi (10 km) wide at its narrowest, is located betweenLake Alakol to the northwest, part of theBalkhash-Alakol Basin in Kazakhstan, andEbinur Lake (Chinese:艾比湖;pinyin:Àibǐ Hú) to the southeast in China.[11] At its lowest, the floor of the valley lies at about 1,500 feet (460 m) elevation, while the surrounding peaks of theDzungarian Alatau range reach about 10,000 feet (3,000 m) to the northeast and 15,000 feet (4,600 m) to the southwest.[12]
Douglas Carruthers, who explored the area in the first decade of the 20th century, writes:
The Dzungarian Gate is a defile about six miles wide at its narrowest point, and forty-six miles long, connecting Southern Siberia with Dzungaria. It forms a natural pathway from the plateau of Mongolia to the great plain of North-western Asia, and is the one and only gateway in the mountain-wall which stretches from Manchuria to Afghanistan, over a distance of three thousand miles. On the west, the Ala-tau drops suddenly from peaks above snow-line to the level of the floor of the depression, 700 feet above the level of the ocean,—the lowest altitude in the inland basins of Central Asia, with the exception of theTurfan depression, which is actually below sea-level.[13]
Geologically, the valley of Dzungarian Gate was created by theactivestrike-slip Dzungar fault system.[14] In strike-slip faults the blocks slide past each other laterally, and in this case they do so in a counter-clockwise direction or dextrally,[15] similar to the famousSan Andreas Fault.
Remarking on it as a geological and physical phenomenon, Carruthers continues:
[T]he Dzungarian Gate is as unusual as that of theJordan depression. They are both examples of arift-valley caused by the movement of the earth's crust, not by the action of water. This valley once formed the connecting link between the drainage of Dzungaria and that of Southern Siberia. The chain of lakes at either end of the valley (Balkash,Ala Kul,Ebi Nor, etc.), are the remains of the greatAsiatic Mediterranean Sea; if their waters were to rise a few hundred feet they would break through the Gate, flooding the plains to the north and south.[16]
Noting that, "In prehistoric days the Dzungarian Gate must have presented a still more wonderful sight" when it "formed a narrow strait joining the Dzungarian inlet with thevast seas of Western Siberia,"[17] Carruthers quotes the British journalist andMP,Morgan Philips Price, with whom he travelled:[18]
One can picture the Dzungarian Gate in theIce Age: a narrow strait through which the Arctic-AraloCaspian Sea ebbed and flowed into the seas ofCentral Asia, scoured by icebergs descending from ancient glaciers on the Ala-tau and Barlik Mountains and forested perhaps down to the water's edge,—not unlike theStraits of Belle Isle at the present day. Now a change has been wrought; earth-movement has drained the sea. But away to the north there still remain the lakes of Ala Kul, Sasik Kul, andBalkash, and on the south Ebi Nor,—pools left in the desert—all that remains of the great icy sea. Thealluvial plains, once its bed, are now covered by desertgrasses, while the forest clings only to the shaded slopes and gullies on the northern slopes of the mountains.[19]
One of the earliest mentions of the Dzungaria region dates to whenEmperor Wu of Han (reigning 141–87 BCE), dispatched theHan Chinese diplomatZhang Qian to investigate lands to the west. The northernmostSilk Roadtrackway, about 2,600 kilometres (1,600 mi) in length, connected the ancient Chinese capital ofXi'an to the west over theWushao Ling Pass toWuwei and emerged inKashgar before linking to ancientParthia.[20]
Dzungaria is named after aMongolian kingdom which existed inCentral Asia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It derived its name from theDzungars, who were so called because they formed the left wing (züün, left;gar, hand) of the Mongolian army, the self-namedOirats. It was raised to its greatest prominence byGaldan (also known as Galdan Boshigtu Khan) in the latter half of the 17th century, who made repeated incursions on the territory of the Kazakh state, until Galdan was wiped out by theQing government in about 1757–1759. It played an important part in the history ofMongolia and the great westward Mongolian migrations. After 1761 its territory fell mostly to the Qing dynasty (Xinjiang and north-western Mongolia) and partly toRussian Turkestan (earlier the Kazakh state provinces ofSemirechye- Jetysu and Irtysh river).
A traveler going west from China must go either north of theTian Shan through Dzungaria or south of the Tian Shan through theTarim Basin. Trade usually took the southern route and migrations the northern. This is most likely because the Tarim leads to theFerghana Valley and Iran, while Dzungaria leads only to the open steppe. The difficulty with the southern route was the high mountains between the Tarim and Ferghana. There is also another reason. TheTaklamakan Desert of the Tarim is too dry to support much grass, and therefore lacked nomads likely to rob caravans. Its inhabitants lived mostly in oases formed where rivers ran out of the mountains into the desert. These were inhabited by peasants who were unwarlike and merchants who had an interest in keeping trade running smoothly. On the other hand, Dzungaria had a fair amount of grass, few towns to base soldiers in and no significant mountain barriers to the west. Therefore, trade went south and migrations north.[21]
The Chinese city ofAlashankou lies on the eastern end of the valley in theBörtala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture ofXinjiang. To the west, in theAlmaty Province of Kazakhstan, lies its smaller counterpart,Dostyk, orDruzhba in Russian.
Modern development of the pass for its economic potential was delayed by political considerations. An agreement between theSoviet Union and thePeople's Republic of China to connect Kazakhstan with Western China by rail had been reached in 1954. On the Soviet side, the railway reached the border town of Druzhba (Dostyk) (whose names, both Russian and Kazakh, mean 'friendship') in 1959. On the Chinese side, however, the westward construction of theLanzhou-Xinjiang railway was stopped once it reachedUrumqi in 1962. Due to theSino-Soviet Split, the border town remained a sleepy backwater for some 30 years, until theAlashankou railway station was finally completed on September 12, 1990. Since the 2010s, freight trains to Russia, Germany or Poland are sent over the pass.[22]
The Dzungarian Gate has been noted in modern history as the most convenient pass for horseback riders between the westernEurasian steppe and lands further east, and for its fierce and almost constant winds.[23] The area has also become known for its gold deposits and for producing prodigious numbers of dinosaur fossils, especiallyProtoceratops. Given that Herodotus relates a story of a traveller to the East who visited a land where griffins guard gold and east of which live the Hyperboreans, modern scholars have theorized that the Dzungarian Gate may be the real-world location of the home of Boreas, the North Wind of Greek Legend.[8][24]
The Greek writerHerodotus writes in hisHistories (4.13) that the explorerAristeas, a native ofProconnesus inAsia Minor active circa 7th century BC, had written ahexameter poem (now lost) about a journey to theIssedones of the far north. Aristeas reported that beyond them lived the one-eyedArimaspians, further on were the gold-guardinggriffins, and beyond these the Hyperboreans.
This Aristeas, possessed byPhoibos, visited theIssedones; beyond these live the one-eyed Arimaspoi, beyond whom are theGrypes that guard gold, and beyond these again theHyperboreoi, whose territory reaches to the sea. Except for the Hyperboreoi, all these nations are always at war with their neighbors...[25]
Based onGreek andScythian sources, Herodotus describes the Issedones as living east of Scythia and north of theMassagetae, while the geographerPtolemy (VI.16.7) appears to place the trading stations ofIssedon Scythica andIssedon Serica in theTarim Basin.[26] They may have been identical with the people described in Chinese sources as theWusun.[27] According to E. D. Phillips, the Issedones are "placed by some in Western Siberia and by others in Xinjiang."[28] J. D. P. Bolton places them on the south-western slopes of theAltai Mountains.[29]
Since Herodotus places the Hyperboreans beyond theMassagetae andIssedones, bothCentral Asian peoples, it appears that his Hyperboreans may have lived inSiberia.Heracles sought thegolden-antlered hind ofArtemis in Hyperborea. As thereindeer is the only deer species of which females bear antlers, this would suggest anarctic orsubarctic region. Following Bolton's location of theIssedones on the south-western slopes of theAltay Mountains, Ruck places Hyperborea beyond theDzungarian Gate into northernXinjiang.
Thegriffin (Greek: γρύφων,grýphōn), alegendary creature with the body of alion and the head and wings of aneagle,[30] is a common heraldic theme of Central Asia.[31]According to modern theory, the griffin was an ancient misconception derived from fossilized remains of theProtoceratops found in conjunction with gold mining in the mountains ofScythia, present day eastern Kazakhstan.[32][33][34]
According to Mayor and Dodson the association of the Dzungarian Gate with gold and griffin (Protoceratops) skeletons spanned a thousand years of classical history:[35]
The second-century A.D. Alexandrian geographer Ptolemy and ancient Chinese sources agree in locating the issedonians along the old trade routes from China to the West, from the western Gobi desert to the Dzungarian (or Junggarian) Gate, the mountain pass between modern Kazakhstan and north-western China. Recent linguistic and archaeological studies confirm that Greek and Roman trade with Saka-Scythian nomads flourished in that region from Aristeas's day to about A.D. 300—exactly the period during which griffins were most prominently featured in Greco-Roman art and literature.[36]
The story ofBoreas, the personified cold north winter wind of Greek legend who lived in a cave north of Greece, parallels that of theburan, a strong winter wind said to blow into theKazakh Steppe out of a hole in a mountainside in the Dzungarian Gate.[37][38]
Ildikó Lehtinen writes that "the story of the cave of the stormwinds somewhere near the Dzungarian Gate" has been known for 2500 years, by travelers from Aristeas in the classic era, toGiovanni di Piano Carpini in the Middle Ages (beforeMarco Polo), and toGustaf John Ramstedt in the 20th century.[39]
Carruthers reports the story of theburan, a ferocious winter wind said to sally from a hole in the side of a mountain:
We had frequently heard of the terrors, dangers, and winds of the Dzungarian Gate... The natives relate the usual traditions as to the origin of the winds in this locality. In the myths of Central Asia a "hole in the mountain," or "an iron gate in a lake" is the usual explanation of the origin of winds. In the case of which I am writing the island called Ala-tyube—a small extinct volcano in Ala Kul—is made responsible for the furious winds which sweep through the depression; the wind is called "ebe," or "yube" by the Kirghiz, and in special cases, when it reaches its maximum velocity, the term "buran" is applied.[40]
Boreas (Greek:Βορέας,Boréas) was the Greek god of the coldnorth wind and the bringer of winter. (Mallory and Adams speculate that the name may derive from aProto-Indo-European root *gworh- meaning mountain.[41]) Boreas is depicted as being very strong, with a violent temper to match. He was frequently shown as a winged old man with shaggy hair and beard, holding aconch shell and wearing a billowing cloak.[1]Pausanias wrote that Boreas hadsnakes instead of feet, though in art he was usually depicted with winged human feet. Closely associated with horses (native to the Eurasian steppe; seePrzewalski's horse, also known as theDzungarian horse), Boreas was said to have fathered twelve colts after taking the form of a stallion, to the mares ofErichthonius, king ofTroy.Pliny (Natural History iv.35 and viii.67) thought that mares might stand with their hindquarters to the North Wind, and bear foals without a stallion. Przwalski's mares are noted for turning their hindquarters to strong winds.[42] The Greeks believed that Boreas's home was in Thrace, andHerodotus and Pliny both describe a northern land known asHyperborea ("Beyond the North Wind"), where people lived in complete happiness and had extraordinarily long lifespans.
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