Kazakhstan - Aksu-Zhabagly state natural reserve

The reserve territory is representative for Western Tien-Shan province, landscapes of which, as against eastern regions of Tien-Shan, more similar to the countries of Middle Asia and Mediterranean. Ridges of the reserve are characterized by predominance of hillside, deeply splitted relief which had been developed in Paleozoic soils; chalkstones, shales and quartzites are widespread here. River valleys are narrow and deep, very often in the form of canyons. The feature of vertical zonality is total absence of spruce forests: the girdle of softwood forest is represented by tall archas, specific for mountains of Pamir and Altai. Permanent snow line in mountains of the reserve is located at the altitude of 3300 m above sea level. Above this horizontal boreal declines of mountains are covered by snowfields, and in hollows glaciers lie, upwards the rivers Dzhabagly and Kshi-Aksu there are 49 glaciers with the square of 12.5 sq. km. (Vilesov, 1976). All glaciers of the reserve are pendulous, some of them form beautiful ice cascades - for example, upwards the river Dzhabagly. Climate The prevailing influencing on Western Tien-Shan province is rendered by atmospheric processes, typical for the Mediterranean sector (Climate of Kazakhstan, 1959)