39°12′N98°32′E / 39.200°N 98.533°E /39.200; 98.533
| Qilian Mountains | |
|---|---|
| 祁連山 | |
 Qilian Mountains inQilian County,Qinghai | |
| Highest point | |
| Peak | Kangze'gyai |
| Elevation | 5,808 m (19,055 ft) |
| Geography | |
 | |
| Location | Gansu andQinghai provinces,China |
TheQilian Mountains (Tibetan:མདོ་ལ་རིང་མོ),[a] together with theAltyn-Tagh sometimes known as theNan Shan,[b] as it is to the south of theHexi Corridor, is a northern outlier of theKunlun Mountains, forming the border betweenQinghai and theGansu provinces of northernChina.[1]
The range stretches from the south ofDunhuang some 800 km to the southeast, forming the northeastern escarpment of theTibetan Plateau and the southwestern border of theHexi Corridor.
The eponymous Qilian Shan peak, situated some 60 km south ofJiuquan, at39°12′N98°32′E / 39.200°N 98.533°E /39.200; 98.533, rises to 5,547 m. It is the highest peak of the main range, but there are two higher peaks further south, Kangze'gyai at38°30′N97°43′E / 38.500°N 97.717°E /38.500; 97.717 with5,808 m andQaidam Shan peak at38°2′N95°19′E / 38.033°N 95.317°E /38.033; 95.317 with5,759 m. Other major peaks includeGangshiqia Peak in the east.
The Nan-Shan range continues to the west as Yema Shan (5,250 m) andAltun Shan (Altyn Tagh) (5,798 m). To the east, it passes north ofQinghai Lake, terminating as Daban Shan and Xinglong Shan nearLanzhou, with Maoma Shan peak (4,070 m) an eastern outlier. Sections of theMing dynasty'sGreat Wall pass along its northern slopes, and south of northern outlierLongshou Shan (3,616 m).
The Qilian mountains are the source of numerous, mostly small, rivers and creeks that flow northeast, enabling irrigated agriculture in theHexi Corridor (Gansu Corridor) communities, and eventually disappearing in theAlashan Desert. The best known of these streams is theEjin (Heihe) River. The region has manyglaciers, the largest of which is theTouming Mengke.[2] These glaciers have undergone acceleration in their melting in recent decades.[3]
Lake Hala is a largebrackish lake, located within the Qilian mountains.
Thecharacteristic ecosystem of the Qilian Mountains has been described by theWorld Wildlife Fund as theQilian Mountains conifer forests.[4]
Biandukou (扁都口), with an altitude of over 3500 m, is a pass in the Qilian Mountains. It linksMinle County of Gansu in the north and Qilian County of Qinghai in the south.[5]
TheShiji mentions the name "Qilian mountains" together withDunhuang in relation to the homeland of theYuezhi.[6] TheseQilian Mountains however, has been suggested to be the mountains now known asTian Shan, 1,500 km to the west.[7]Dunhuang has also been argued to be theDunhong mountain.[8]Qilian (祁连) is said to be a Xiongnu word meaning "sky" (Chinese:天) according toYan Shigu, aTang dynasty commentator on theHanshu.[9] Sanping Chen (1998) suggested that 天tiān, 昊天hàotiān, 祁連qílián, and 赫連Hèlián were all cognates and descended from multisyllabicProto-Sinitic *gh?klien.[10] Schessler (2014) objects to Yan Shigu's statement that 祁連 was a Xiongnu word; he reconstructs 祁連's pronunciation in around 121 BCE as *gɨ-lian, apparently the same etymon as 乾 (☰) theTrigram for "Heaven", instandard Chineseqián <Middle ChineseQYS *gjän <Eastern Han Chinesegɨan <Old Chinese *gran, which Schuessler etymologizes as fromProto-Sino-Tibetan and related toProto-Tibeto-Burman *m-ka-n, cognate withWritten Tibetan མཁའ (Wylie transliteration: mkha') “heaven”.[11][12]
TheTuyuhun were based around the Qilian mountains.
The mountain range was formerly known in European languages as Richthofen Range afterFerdinand von Richthofen, who wasthe Red Baron's explorer-geologist uncle.[13]
The mountain range gives its name to Qinghai'sQilian County.
It can be found in Laohu Valley on the northern slope of Daxue Mountain in Subei County.
祁連山即天山也,匈奴呼天為祁連 (translation: Qilian Mountain is the Tian Shan, the Xiongnu called the sky qilian)
Media related toQilian Mountains at Wikimedia Commons