Trip from Naryn to Tash-Rabat gorge.

"The Naryn fortification (570½ versts from the city of Verny) with a trading place is located on the left bank of the river in a narrow river valley, like in a pit, over which the mountains surrounding almost all sides dominate and completely hide from the eyes of the traveler. Upstream the river, the valley narrows, and below (from the west), it is closed by the Naryn-Tau ledge, Ak-Kiya, which makes the mountain valley a closed basin, at the bottom of which is the fortress, built in 1868 by Major General Ya. I. Kraevsky."

A. D. Sokolov. "Along the new road from Semirechye to Fergana." 1908.

Mountains in vicinity of Naryn.

Here is the Naryn River, clean, not stormy and already quite wide, and on its left bank there is a fortification. The latter, of course, cannot be called a miracle of fortification. A low wall, a rampart, a ditch and barracks, which can accommodate about 100 men of the team, fifty Cossacks and some fortress artillery; all this can be terrible only for Asians, but this is all that is required.
Naryn, due to its remoteness and desertedness, is one of those seedy places of our outskirts, which our employees usually avoid, like exile to a settlement. What can you do! You can’t do without these places - they are the advanced links of that chain of Russian settlements, which is being introduced into the Muslim and Chinese East, step by step, winning back the soil from Asian barbarism.
That these words are not too strong, we will see below. It seems to me that anyone who has lived a year or two in such places has earned in some way the right to be called a pioneer of civilization, and it would be fair that service in such isolated places should at least enjoy certain privileges, which, however, have not yet been granted.
Nowhere, as in these destitute corners, does the whole atmosphere depend on the quality of the local senior authorities. In this respect, Naryn is happy at present. The influence of K. A. Larionov, who combines education and knowledge of the region with dignity of character, can be called beneficial.
In this he is also assisted by his wife, who in former times accompanied him on all expeditions to explore this region in topographic and meteorological respects. The settlement of Naryn itself, located outside the fortification, is quite decent and almost exclusively commercial.
Several long, wide and clean streets, houses of adobe and brick, with flat roofs and front gardens. The greenery of the latter - mainly willow - was still fresh. The main street is a shopping mall, the shops of which are exclusively Asiatic, and the owners are partly Tatars, but mostly black-bearded Sarts in robes and turbans; the main part of the goods from Kashgar passes through here.
All the traders are counted up to 300. The environs of Naryn are unattractive. A basin surrounded by bare yellowish-gray mountains, due to the lack of an open horizon, called by the soldiers a "disciplinary cell". At some distance in the mountains there are several spots of low-growing spruce forest.
The soil is remarkably dense, consisting of loam interspersed with small pebbles. The water is relatively rich in lime, of which there is generally enough in the local mountains. There is, by the way, a rich deposit of alabaster. The climate, due to the high position (7000 - 8000 feet above sea level), is very cold; cabbage does not ripen here, and potatoes are little more than a hazelnut.
Thanks to the cold climate, the density of the soil, the absence of swamps, the comparatively pure water, the width and cleanliness of the streets, Naryn remains one of the healthier places in Semirechye, which, incidentally, is evidenced by the economic reserve of quinine accumulated in the infirmary pharmacy, while in most of our other infirmary pharmacies there is a constant shortage of it.
It should be noted, however, that newcomers here often suffer from nervous attacks - headaches, a feeling of shortness of breath and an aimless mental anguish, which is partly explained by the altitude of the place. During a walk through the Naryn Gostiny Dvor, I happened to be a witness to a scene in the oriental style.
The benches, steps and porches in front of several shops are strewn with a robe-wearing crowd. From white-bearded old men in white turbans to barefoot boys, everyone sits as if petrified, their eyes riveted to a man walking back and forth along the street, at some distance from the shops.
This subject, in a white turban with a yellow sash and a silk robe, is telling something in a loud voice. He will stop, stretching his arms forward, straining his voice and bulging his eyes, then he will walk at a quick pace, speaking quickly, then he will sit down, as if in thought, speaking almost in a whisper, then he will again enter into pathos, in a word, he will improvise something very touching.
It turns out that this was a traveling storyteller or lecturer, teaching legends from the lives of Muslim saints. This is a very profitable trade, the storyteller is carried in arms and well presented.

Authority:
N. L. Zeland. "Kashgaria and passes of Tien-Shan." Travel notes. Notes of the West Siberian Department of Imperial Russian Geographical Society. Book IX. 1888.