Glossary
The encyclopedia of the tourist

T
Talas, region
Tamga, sanatorium
Tamga-Tash
Tar, canyon
Tash-Kumyr
Tash-Rabat
Tash-Tulga
 Tegirmenty
Teo-Ashuu
Teplokluchenka
Teplye Kluchi
Tian-Shan, mountains
Tokmok, town

 Toktogul, town
Toktogul, reservoir
Ton
Toru-Aigyr
Torugart, pass

 Tosor
Turkestan Range
Tuura-Suu
Tyup


Tamga-Tash, (letter stone). is a stone inscribed with ancient Tibetan runes in the Tamga gorge a few kilometers above the village. The rock is high above the water - quite difficult to find - and nobody knows how or why the inscription (some of which has worn away) comes to be here. Apparently it is an ancient mantra - still chanted by Buddhist monks today.
In the mountains 20 km to the east of the village is the Djuuku Canyon with warm mineral water springs.Top

Tar, canyon. The river Tar is a tributary of the Kara-Darya river which flows from the East to the South of Uzgen and then down into the Ferghana Valley. Canyons rich with a variety of fauna and flora including shrubs and pistachio trees, two lakes, petroglyphs, a cave 910 m long and many springs of mineral water.Top

Tash-Kumyr. A coal mining town which stretches for several kilometers on the side of the Naryn River below the Toktogul reservoir which serves as a starting point for trips into the Sary-Chelek reserve. The Bishkek - Osh road between the reservoir and Tash-Kumyr passes through a spectacular gorge.
Nearby is Kara-Suu where archaeologists have discovered the remains of a Stone Age settlement.Top

Tash-Rabat. Tash-Rabat, one of the rarest monuments of the ancient Asian architecture, is located in the picturesque Kara-Koyun Canyon. We know, according to the results of the archeological and architectural researches of the recent years, that Tash-Rabat was set up in the 10th century of our era. Perhaps, it was the Monastery of Christians-Nestorians (or Buddhists) even before the Mongols invasion and Islam extension. The fortress served, as a caravanserai (hotel) on the ancient caravan path from Semirechye to Kashgar during the Silk Way development. Tash-Rabat is nicely fitted in the surrounding landscape. It presents a rectangle of the 35.7x33.7m by sizes with several cupolas. The structure includes a big central hall (the plaster elements from “gancha”, i.e. the burnt clay, and paint signs have been preserved in its interior) and 31 rooms, located around the hall, crowned with 20 cupolas and 11 arches. Numerous underground passages are there in the fortress; there are secret exits and underground prisons (zindans). They were used, as shelters for refugees and hermits, as places to study religion and shelters for the trade caravans during centuries. Nobody knows: who has built Tash-Rabat. The construction remains to be a riddle. The history states, that it was Mukhammed Khan, the local Ruler.Top

Tash-Tulga. On the southern shore of Lake Son-Kul - ancient stone circles which arte supposed to have associations with the legendary hero Manas.Top

Tegirmenty: A village at the head of the Chon-Kemin valley - thereare some ancient barrows (burial mounds) nearby. Top

Teo-Ashuu. The Teo-Ashu Canyon is best known because the pass (actually Ashu means «pass» in Kyrgyz) at the top is the highest point on the Bishkek - Osh road at 3586 m - and the gorge from the town of Kara-Balta is well worth the journey in itself with steep walls and spectacular views. At the top, the old road can be seen climbing over the very summit of the pass, but there is now a tunnel burrowing through the mountain, (apparently built by the same construction team responsible for the Leningrad and Moscow metros) . Emerging out of the tunnel on the other side of the pass is a splendidvista of the Suusamir plain.   Top

Teplokluchenka. (Warm Springs). A village, 12 kilometers to the East of Karakol, at the foot of the Ak-Suu and Altyn-Arashan valleys.Top

Tian-Shan. The Tian-Shan also commonly spelled Tien-Shan, and known as Tangri-Tagh ("celestial mountains" or "mountains of the spirits") in the Uyghur language, is a mountain range located in Central Asia. The now widely-used name Tian-Shan is a Chinese translation of the original Uyghur name. The range lies to the north and west of the Taklamakan Desert in the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of western China. In the south it links up with the Pamir. It also extends into the Chinese province of Xinjiang and into the northern areas of Pakistan and some parts of Jammu and Kashmir where it meets with Hindu Kush.
The Tian Shan are a part of the Himalayan orogenic belt which was formed by the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates in the Cenozoic era. They are one of the longest mountain ranges in Central Asia, stretching some 2,800 km eastward from Tashkent in Uzbekistan.
The highest peak in the Tian-Shan is Jengish Chokusu which, at 7,439 m or 24,406 ft, is also the highest point in Kyrgyzstan and is on the border with China. The Tian Shan's second highest peak, Khan-Tengri (Lord of the Spirits), at 7,010 m, straddles the Kazakhstan-Kyrgyzstan border. Mountaineers class these as the two most northerly peaks over 7,000 m in the world.
The Torugart Pass, 3,752 m or 12,310 ft high, is located at the border between Kyrgyzstan and China's Xinjiang province. The forested Alatau ranges, which are at a lower altitude in the northern part of the Tian-Shan, are inhabited by pastoral tribes speaking Turkic languages. The major rivers rising in the Tian-Shan are the Syr-Darya, the Ili river and the Tarim River. The Aksu Canyon is a notable feature in the northwestern Tian-Shan.
One of the first Europeans to visit and the first to describe the Tian-Shan in detail was the Russian explorer Peter Semenov in the 1850s.Top

Tokmok. Is a small town about 60 kilometers east of the capital, Bishkek. The name means «hammer» in Kyrgyz. It is the commercial center of the Chui valley.
Tokmok was the site of one of the forts established by the Khokand khanate to protect trade routes and was the regional centre for the local administration when the Russians arrived. In 1878, a series of floods occurred and the milary engineers persuaded the bureaucrats to move the administrative centre to nearby Pishpek (Bishkek).
A couple of kilometers short of Tokmak, to the right of the main road, are the remains of another large ancient city - Ak-Beshim - and here, too, archaeologists have unearthed a Buddhist temple and a Nestorian church. Ak Beshim is mentioned in medieval texts as a large flourishing city and it served at one time as the capital of the Western Turkic State.
To the south, some 15 kilometers, lies the Burana Tower.
However, Tokmok played the role of fort and a large trading centre.
After the Russian forces took over the fort in 1860, people started coming here - Russians, Settled Kyrgyz and Uzbeks started building houses. Later the Dungans and Uygurs joined them.
Tokmok became a prosperous city during Soviet times, but shared the fate of all small towns after the collapse of the Union. Top

Toktogul. A small town located on the Northern shore of the Toktogul reservoir - named for it's famous son - the akyn Toktogul Satylganov (1884-1933).Top

Toktogul, reservoir. The reservoir was created in 1976 - after 14 years construction work on the Toktogul Dam was completed - when the Ketmentub valley was flooded. Some 26 communities were displaced and relocated along the main road which was forced to swing round the Eastern end of the rervoir when the valley was flooded, and archaeologists completed several excavations of barrows dating from the 8th and 9th centuries.Top

Ton. A village on the shore of the lake, near to Bokonbaevo. Nearby are radon mineral water springs - Ton is the home of Bar Bulak mineral water. The site of a medieval town - dating from between the 6th and 12th centuries.Top

Toru-Aigyr. The village is 20 kilometers east of Balykchi. A big city was located here in the Middle Ages. By the assumptions of some scholars, it was Isikul (or the Issyk-Kul), marked on the Catalan map in 1375. In the second half of XIX century Russian researchers have found "a lot of ceramic dishes and utensils there. They also found: -"a lot of scattered human bones washed up by waves ..."
In 40s of XIX century, a Russian fugitive-fisherman said that when he was floating on his raft on the lake, he saw the underwater structure. In 1890 the village was located above the so-called "brick factory, where the Kyrgyz got bricks for their houses. During excavations in the 40s of XX century, it was revealed that this place was a medieval bath, the water to which travelled via ceramic pipes. The floor in the bath was laid with bricks, covered with turquoise glaze. These were the same bricks used by local residents for the construction of their house.
Further evidence of the Russian researchers: "The are many ancient tombs around the mountains, where the Kyrgyz people found a copper pot with handles and a gold plate. There is a belief that there is treasure hidden in these mountains, over which candles are burnt at night, which scare the horses and camels".
Even up until now, the water of Issyk-Kul lake washes up pieces of ceramics bleached by the water as well as the bones of ancient residents of the city, on to the shore near the Toru-Aygyr.
9 km from Toru-Aygyr is a gorge with rock drawings. Petroglyphs, carved on the smooth surfaces of rocks around 4500 years ago, mainly depicting scenes of hunting and ritual ceremonies.
The road leads into the mountains to the canyons Suu-Kalmar, Taldy-Bulak, Dura-Suu, Kabyrga and Toru-Aygyr. Top

The Torugart pass is a pass in the Tian-Shan mountain range in Central Asia at the elevation of 3,752 m (12,310 ft). lake Chatyr-Kul lies in the vicinity of the pass.
The pass is the main border crossing between the People's Republic of China (Xinjiang province) and Kyrgyzstan. The nearest large Chinese city is Kashgar, the nearest Kyrgyz city is Naryn. The road on the Kyrgyz side, from Torugart to Naryn and then to Balykchi and Bishkek, is narrow and in winter often impassable due to heavy snow and frequent avalanches, so that transport and trade between Kyrgyzstan and China are difficult and costly. The People's Republic of China is now considering to build a railway linking Kyrgyzstan to Kashgar.

Tosor. The village, is located west of Tamga on the southern shore of the lake Issyk-Kul. Tosor translated from Turkic as "vanguard" or "outpost". Proof of this are the ruins of a small fortress – the size of Tosor is 100x100 meters, located on the outskirts of the western part of the village. There are numerous historical monuments near the village Tosor and in the floodplain of the river of the same name. One of the most interesting is the Paleolithic settlement place of primitive people of Tosor. The settlement place is located on the right floodplain terrace of the river Tosor, 5 km from the highway Balykchi-Karakol. This settlement place is 100-140 thousand of years. Above the village is the canyon Tosor. Top

Turkestan range. Glaciers, spectacular scenery eroded by wind and ice and tremendous temperature changes created peaks such as Asan (4200 m) and Iskander (5120 m) that look like a row of sharks teeth, surrounded by lush pastures, with a wide range of fauna and flora.Top

Tuura-Suu. Above the Bokonbaevo village (southern coast of Issyk-Kul), near the village of Tuura-Suu, lies the whole scattering of the archaeological monuments. On the right bank of the river Ton, several large stones with Petroglyphs and ancient inscriptions were found there, which were engraved in Arabic script. The stone processing station is located on the rocky talus, where craftsmen hew dzhergalchaki - millstones for watermills. Small hills of burial mounds are scattered around the valley.
Ancient graves in stone sarcophagi were discovered in Tuura-Suu village, which were covered by slabs of rock. The ruins of the ancient citadel city, which were built in the VI century, are still preserved in the valley surrounded from three sides by low mountains. The remains of the fortress walls, half-flooded by waters of Tortkulsky reservoir, are well visible even at present time. The remains of sanctuaries, which are led by paths, surrounded by stones can be found on the peaks of nearby mountains.   Top

Tyup. A town at the extreme eastern end of lake Issyk-Kul. To the West, on the peninsular jutting out into the lake archaeologists have found the site of the ancient settlement of Chigu, dating to the 2nd century.  Top

Kyrgyzstan travel