Trip East Kazakhstan.

"Oh taiga, taiga,
How are you dear
By treating the soul!
Your peace is eternal ...
Who are you
He threw it on land?”

Sultanmakhut Toraigyrov.

Car tours in East Kazakhstan.

Since the time of Herodotus, earthlings have known about a wild mountain country located in the depths of the continent, with a resounding short name - Altai. Rising up in the skies above the mountains, Altai spread south of the immense Siberian taiga, frightening with its impassability, countless swamps and rivers.
From the south, this mountainous region is surrounded by the sun-dried deserts of Central Asia and the southern deserts of Kazakhstan, dry winds of Central Asia are blowing. Altai, having swept its spurs like wings, connects and divides Siberia and the deep Central Asia.
The great mountain junction, where almost all the Altai ridges originate, is famous for being a part of the global watershed between the inland drainage Central Asian basin and the waters of the Arctic Ocean. The highest and most beautiful two-headed peak of Altai - Muztau (Belukha), is located on the border of Kazakhstan and Russia.
One can understand the wild beauty of Altai, its smoky blue-purple ridges covered with eternal ice and snow, dressed in gray placers of loaches, which are called corums here, only at the top. From here you can only see Altai in all its splendor: the dark blue dips of deep valleys and gorges, sparkling countless rivers rushing down, the turquoise mosaic of large and small lakes...
Altai mountain ranges are covered by impenetrable cedar-fir taiga, with suddenly appearing valleys, light birch copses or openwork larch forests. At the foot of the mountains in the northern part of Kazakhstan Altai, the slopes are dotted with continuous greenery of impenetrable shrubs.
At the animal paths rise tall, lush grasses that can hide with the head of a rider. From the heights of the eternal mountain snows, steep grass rivers rushing down in boiling breakers rush down. It was they who for many millennia sawed granite rocks.
At the bottom of these gorges is crystal clear water. Elasticated taimen and fast grayling sparkle with scales in it. The ethereal multicolor of fearful rainbows hangs over noisy waterfalls, in the shade of the forests ice fontanels play with scales of washed mica.
On the flat backs of the ridges, sedge overflowing swamps dimly glisten. In the forest belt, they are replaced by swamps cluttered by a tall and unsteady scotch. In the foothills, the fat fields of wheat fields are gilded, or sunflower crops blaze with sunny spills. In wide valleys, tamed rivers are crowded, forming high-water reservoirs.
And everywhere - flexible mountain. trails, lanes and tracks connecting numerous villages and settlements, apiaries and dzhailau, forest cordons and beautiful modern cities. The mountainous country called Altai is located between 48 ° and 53 ° N; its southwestern part is located within our republic and is called the Kazakhstan Altai.
Kazakhstan part of Altai occupies almost a tenth of the territory of the whole republic. This is an unusually beautiful region, endowed with amazing natural contrasts, including almost all landscape-zonal conditions: from desert rocky peripheral mountains that extend to the 3aysan depression to rocky ridges, covered with eternal snows and snowfields, usually hidden under the canopy of clouds circling around them.
The western part of the Kazakhstan Altai, or Ore Altai, is known throughout the world as a treasury of ore minerals. It is far from accidental that the region was called Altai, which means Golden Jurassic. The names of many travelers and natural scientists who began the study of this region from the XVIIIth century are associated with the Kazakh part of Altai: P. S. Paplas. P. Shaneein and F. A. Gebler, K. F. Ledebour, G. E. Schurovskog, G. N. Potanin. M.V. Pevtsoea, V.V. Sapozhnikova, N.F. Kashchenko, V.A. Obruchev and N.P. Semenov - Tian-Shansky, N.M. Przhevalsky.
The well-known German zoologist Alfred Bram, the author of the multi-volume publication Animal Life, and his companion Otto Finsch visited here in the last century. In the Soviet period, Altai Kazakhstan explored outstanding fauna P.P. Sushkin.
The mountain ranges of the Kazakhstan Altai have a complex geological structure: in its western peripheral part, slightly hilly plains clearly stand out, passing to the east in the middle mountains with wide valleys and narrow deep gorges in the mountainous part.
Deposits of the Lower Paleozoic, Carboniferous with an abundance of ancient volcanic formations and a complex geotectonic structure associated with the numerous phases of the movement of the crust and volcanism are widespread in the west. In some places above the mountain-plain Altai there are groups of sharp rocky ridges, ridges, peaks that are the centers of the centers of modern glaciation.
The history of the formation of the Altai Mountains in itself is complex and peculiar. According to geologists, Altai garny ridges appeared more than 200 million years ago, when intense volcanic processes took place here, accompanied by the outpouring and invasion of molten magmatic mass in the thickness of the sedimentary rocks forming.
As cooling cools from crystalline magma, hydrothermal activity (pressure of hot jets of water and gas) has brought various polymetallic ores to the surface. Millions of years by the constant action of precipitation and winds thoroughly destroyed the Altai uplift.
Subsequent powerful underground forces. the febrile continent “rejuvenated” the land again - they revived the mountainous terrain. They raised its individual parts to various heights. Such is the approximate pattern of the formation of the garny landscape of the Kazakhstani part of Altai, - this is how geologists explain the origin of the richest storehouse of polymetallic ores, naturally located in the so-called ore zones. The climate of Altai is sharply continental, with a large amplitude of daily, seasonal and average annual fluctuations in air temperature, which is explained inside by the continental position of the territory of this mountainous region.
Altai is an arena for the convergence of the sharply continental Mongolian, steppe and semi-desert climate of Central Asia and the continental West Siberian. The vertical zoning of the garbage part is relatively clearly expressed, which in turn determines the complex mosaic of the distribution of plant belts.
The coldest months are January and February with an average monthly temperature from -17 to -23.8 C in the north in the mountains of the Rudny Altai and in the highlands and from -14.1 to -16.6 C in the mountains of the southern part.
The warmest month is July, its average monthly temperature is + 14 + 16С, at altitudes of 1000 - 1500 m above sea level - 0 С, the temperature in the foothills and in the flat part is slightly higher. Wind activity is quite difficult to manifest: in winter, Mongol-Siberian anticyclones prevail with low temperatures and low rainfall. In summer, the collapse of the Mongol-Siberian anticyclone promotes the movement of moist air masses from the west. At this time, humid westerly and northwesterly winds prevail.
The distribution of precipitation is extremely uneven and is determined mainly by the location of mountain ranges that can delay precipitation coming from the west. The amount of precipitation depends on the level of absolute heights and exposure of the slopes.
As it approaches the highlands, it increases to 1000-1300 mm or more per year. The greatest amount of precipitation falls on the windward slopes of the Rudny Altai ranges, since they are the first to intercept the moisture of western air currents.
On the Ivanovsky ridge, where the Gromotukha, Belaya and Chernaya Uba, Turgusun rivers begin, the maximum amount of precipitation falls - 2200 mm (at a rate of 1500 - 1800 mm). In the South Altai province, the second maximum is confined to the northern slopes of the Narymsky and Tarbagatoy ranges - more than 1300 mm of precipitation falls here.
The snow cover usually reaches 3 – 4 m on the leeward slopes of the ranges in their sloping part. A significant amount of snow is concentrated in the axial sections of the highest ranges, it lies in numerous caravans, teal, and avalanche dumps.
Snowfields persist even after the seasonal snow cover has disappeared, decorating the tops of the ridges all summer. In the years of snowfall, thawing, they are compressed, forming small glaciers, cornices. The bowels of the Kazakhstan Altai are rich in minerals, especially polymetallic ores containing lead, zinc, copper, gold, silver and rare metals - cadmium, molybdenum, bismuth, indium, thallium, cobalt, selenium.
There are large deposits of antimony, mercury, brown and hard coal, oil shale, limestone, marble, and refractory clay. In general, most of the coal deposits in Kazakhstan are located in the Karaganda, Kustanai, Tselinograd, Pavlodar and East Kazakhstan regions.
The largest coal-shale deposit, the products of which can be used as fuel, chemical raw materials and raw materials for gas production, is Kendirlikskoye in Altai. Copper ore deposits are also widespread in the Ore Altai.
Their main recoverable metals are copper, lead, zinc, and sulfur and others are additional. In the Ore Altai polymetallic belt, stretching in the northeast, more than 900 endogenous manifestations (large, medium, small deposits and ore occurrences) of non-ferrous metals are known.
Ore bodies in Yuzhno-Altaysky, Kurchumsky-Karchiginsky, Zyryanovskon, Turgusun-Khamirsky, Riddersky (Leninogorsky, Irtyshsky, Babylonian, Verkhuba-Shemonaikhinsky, Zmeinogorsky ore regions meet in the form of a layer and lenticular, columnar, columnar, columnar -zinc, copper-lead, zinc compounds.
Gold was mined in East Kazakhstan before the revolution from the richest sections of primary and placer deposits. Currently, quartz-vein, stockwork, gold-quartz, metasome gold-quartz-sulfide deposits are concentrated in Kalba.
Numerous quartz-lime deposits are known in the Southern Altai of Kazakhstan. Industrial deposits of tungsten and molybdenum are located in Gorny Altai (Kokshil, Chindagatuy). Among the scattered elements, the main reserves of cadmium are concentrated in copper-zinc, lead -zinc ores of the Ore Altai.
Cadmium is extracted mainly from zinc concentrates. Significant gallium reserves are contained in the polymetallic ores of the Ore Altai, they are extracted in the process of hydrometal Urgent production of a chink.
The main concentrations of thallium are concentrated in the galentin of polymetallic ores of the Leninogorsk, Zyryanovsky, and Irtysh districts; it has been established to extract it from raw materials as a result of metallurgical processes.
The main source of selenium and tellurium are pyrite-polymetallic deposits of the Rudnoy Altai. In Altai, large reserves of non-metallic minerals. Sulfur raw materials are contained in ores of polymetallic and iron ore deposits.
More than 70 thousand tons of sulfuric acid are obtained from pyrite-containing polymetallic ores of East Kazakhstan. Quartz sand, clay (the so-called molding material), petrurgic raw materials (materials and products of casting from rock melts and industrial wastes) are concentrated in Altai.
For example, products manufactured by the Ust-Kamenogorsk Mineral Products Plant are supplied to all enterprises of Kazakhstan and partially to Russia. The main industries of the East Kazakhstan region are non-ferrous metallurgy, electric power, engineering, logging and woodworking.
It should be noted that the leading industries in this region of the republic developed in close connection with the local electric power industry. Large Bukhtarminskaya, Ust-Kamenogorsk hydroelectric power stations, Leninogorsk TPP and small energy enterprises are combined into the Altai power system. Kazakhstan Altai is a major producer of non-ferrous metals.
Non-ferrous metallurgy, which combines mining, ore-dressing and metallurgical enterprises, accounts for 55% of gross industrial output. Its products are famous for the Ust-Kamenogorsk lead-zinc plant, which produces 28 types of products, some of which are exported to other countries of the world, the Leninogorsk and Irtysh polymetallic, Zyryanvesky lead, East Kazakhstan copper-chemical (Ust-Talovka) plants, the Irtysh chemical and metallurgical a plant, a titanium-magnesium plant, some types of products of which are exported.
Integrated non-ferrous metallurgy influenced the development of the chemical industry. At the metallurgical enterprises of Ust-Kamenogorsk, Leninogorsk produce sulfuric acid, potash fertilizers. For the first time in Kazakhstan, the Irtysh Chemical and Metallurgical Plant launched the production of colored glass from waste products of the main products.
A new industry in Kazakhstan Altai is mechanical engineering. Mining, metallurgical and power equipment (drilling rigs, ore loading machines, scrapers, winches, devices, capacitors) are mainly produced, there are shipbuilding, ship repair enterprises.
The main center of engineering is Ust-Kamenogorsk. In terms of stocks and logging, Kazakhstan Altai takes first place in the republic. In the East Kazakhstan region, about two thousand hectares are occupied under the forest, especially large timber reserves in the valleys of Ulba, Bukhtarma, Naryn, Kurchum. In the region there are many enterprises of light industry (knitting, sewing, fur, shoe factories) and food (meat and fish) industries.
Agriculture of the Kazakhstan Altai specializes in meat and dairy and meat-and-wool animal husbandry, grain farming, crops of industrial crops. In the foothills of Altai, Saura, Tarbagatay and the 3aysan depression, sheep breeding prevails.
Maral are bred in the region (especially in the Katon-Karagaysky district), beekeeping is developed in the foothills of Altai, fish farming on the Bukhtarma reservoir and the Irtysh. The Kazakh part of Altai is sometimes poetically called the Blue Altai, and this is quite true: numerous rivers and mountain streams fed by glaciers, lakes, reservoirs strike with blue, which, it seems, has absorbed the whole thickening blue of the sky.
From the height of the mountains, in all its glory, the blue bowl of Lake Markakol opens in an oval shape, give the rocks a lilac sheen by transparent-clear streams, Bukhtarma runs in a powerful stream, the Irtysh water tries to break out of the concrete banks of the canal.
If you put all its streams, keys, lakes, reservoirs on the map of the Kazakhstan Altai, then it will become all as if in wrinkles - this is he, Blue Altai. The source, constantly feeding the blue expanses of Altai, are glaciers. In Altai, they descend on average to an altitude of 2600 m above sea level.
The harsh climate of the highlands affects the surrounding areas. The total area of ​​the permafrost zone, according to indicative data, in Altai is 5670 sq. Km, the lower boundary of its distribution is 2000 m. The prospects for using glaciers and eternal snow in Altai are determined by the fact that they contain enormous solid water resources . Being melted in warm time, they give rise to many mountain rivers of great economic importance, providing artificial irrigation of fields.
Altai, as a well-moistened alpine region, has a dense river network. The most watery river of Kazakhstan is the Irtysh River, with a total length of 4248 km (within the republic 1400 km). It originates on the western slopes of the Mongolian Altai at an altitude of 2500 m and is called Kara Ertys (Black Irtysh).
The catchment area is 1592 thousand km. ” Black Irtysh flows into Lake Zaysan, and upon leaving it receives the name Irtysh. Currently, the lake is blocked by the waters of the Bukhtarma reservoir. Below is the Small Irtysh Lake (over 70 km long) and the Ust-Kamenogorsk Hydroelectric Power Station.
The width of the Irtysh is 120 - 150 m. Its tributaries are shallow, in the spring in some areas they spread. Many of these rivers in the summer either completely dry up or break up into a chain of obscured reaches. Some of them end blindly, bringing their waters only to melting snow to temporary lakes, which turn into salt marshes in the summer.
Within Kazakhstan, the Irtysh is navigable. All rivers of the Kazakhstani part of Altai have low mineralization, even at low water it does not exceed 300 mg / l, therefore, mountain river water can be used for any domestic, agricultural and technical needs.
In 1962, the construction of the Irtysh-Karaganda canal began for water supply in Central Kazakhstan. This is the largest channel in Kazakhstan. Its length to Karaganda is 500 km, the width of the upper part of the channel is 40 m, the base is 4 m, the depth is 5 to 7 m. 22 stations have been built along the canal that raise water to 420 m in height.
The annual flow of water from the canal is 2.5 billion cubic meters. More than 100 different hydraulic structures were built along the canal. The Irtysh-Karaganda canal provides industrial centers of the Pavlodar, Tselinograd and Karaganda regions with Irtysh waters, irrigates and irrigates agricultural land.
Currently, the construction of this canal continues to Dzhezkazgan. On the territory of Kazakhstan, many reservoirs have been built to provide for the water management needs of industrial areas. The largest of them, designed for irrigation and energy purposes, is Bukhtarma.
The height of the dam of the Bukhtarma hydroelectric station is 90 m. The length of the reservoir together with the river channel is 600 m, the area is 5,500 km. ”Without Lake Zaysan, the total water volume is 49.6 km3, the greatest width is 35 km, the average depth is 11.
The Bukhtarma reservoir, built in 1966, plays a large role in the national economy of the republic: several hundred thousand hectares of grasslands are irrigated with its waters, carp, crucian carp, perch and other fish are bred here.
Altai is famous for the presence of large reserves of groundwater. 3 there are powerful sources with a flow rate of 100 - 300 l / s, for example, Svetly Klyuch. The total volume of natural resources of groundwater of fractured-reservoir type in the mountains of East Kazakhstan is 10 billion cubic meters.
Watery coarse clastic deposits of foothill and intramountain troughs of Kazakhstan Altai. The production rates of individual exploited wells drilled in these rocks reach 50 - 70 l / s and more (in places up to 100 - 120 l / s).
The flow rates of wells revealing the underground waters of the Cretaceous sediments reach from 5 - 10 to 40 - 50 l / s.

Authority:
"Altai of Kazakhstan", compiled by A.L. Kobozev, Alma-Ata, Kaynar, 1986.

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.