Tarim-basin definitions

4 The lower terrace is obviously continued in the Tarim basin of East Turkestan; but in the present state of our knowledge we cannot determine whether the further continuations of the borderridge of the higher terrace (Yablonoi, Kentei) must be looked for in the Great Altai or in some other range situated farther south.

On the east the Pamir highlands are fenced off from the East Turkestan lowlands by the double border-ridge of Sarik-kol (the Sarik-kol range and the Murtagh or Kashgar range), which has its eastern foot down in the Tarim basin (4000-4500 ft.) and its western up on the Pamirs at 10,500 to 13,000 ft.

In the western part of this valley occurs the very important transverse water-divide of Gulcha-davan (14,150 ft.), which separates the basin of the Cherchen-darya that goes down into the Tarim basin from the area that drains down to the Ghaz-kol, which belongs to the Tsaidam depression.

Like all other cities of Central Asia, it has changed hands repeatedly, and was from 1864-1877 the seat of government of the Amir Yakub Beg, surnamed the Atalik Ghazi, who established and for a brief period ruled with remarkable success a Mahommedan state comprising the chief cities of the Tarim basin from Turfan round along the skirt of the mountains to Khotan.

The earliest authentic mention of Kashgar is during the second period of ascendancy of the Han dynasty, when the Chinese conquered the Hiungnu, Yutien (Khotan), Sulei (Kashgar), and a group of states in the Tarim basin almost up to the foot of the Tian Shan mountains.