Kurai steppe

Geographical position

The steppe is the bottom of a fairly deep intermountain basin located at an altitude of 1,500-1,600 m above sea level, with a diameter of up to 20 km, surrounded by the North Chuysky Range in the south and the Kurai in the north.

Orohydrography

Here is one of the most spectacular relief fields of giant signs of ripple currents in the world associated with floods from glacier- dammed lakes. This field is developed in the reverse flow zone of superfluids on the right bank of the Tete River. This ripple formed during the catastrophic discharges of Chui and Kurai lakes about 15 thousand years ago. The giant ripple of the current is one of the main arguments of the catastrophic discharges of glacier-dammed lakes . This relief is one of the most exotic elements of the diluvial morpholithological complex.

In general, the entire paleohydrological morpholithological set of the Kurai Basin basin is a classic example of mountain scabland . The hollow itself, together with its mountain-glacial frame, represents a real nature reserve - a glacial park ^{[1] [2]} .

Climate

The steppe is located in a zone of sharply continental climate. Summer heat can be interrupted by snow blizzards and snowstorms. The frost-free period lasts 55-60 days. Annual precipitation is 150-200 mm. The sum of temperatures above 10 degrees Celsius is 1100-1250.

The sharp contrasts in air temperature and soil surface are explained by the high-altitude position of the steppe and strong cooling in a cloudless sky.

Flora and fauna

The valley has a specific vegetation cover that is more characteristic of the desert steppes of Mongolia. Only in the riverine valley of Chui, along the river banks are laerid poplar , weeping Kurai willow , thickets of yellow Kuril tea , sea ​​buckthorn . Caragana grows on dry hills, among the shrubs in the river valley you can find mountain forget-me-nots , white-blooded white-eyed , saxifrage dotted and other plants.

The fauna of the steppe is represented by such species as the steppe polecat , hare , fox , and wolf . Cranes and storks are found along river banks.

The Kurai steppe is rich in archaeological sites. In the Chui Valley, numerous mounds, stone women, stone writings and ancient irrigation systems have been preserved. The ancient Turkic culture, called “Kurai”, is allocated to the middle mounds.

The remains of ancient irrigation monuments are also found in the valleys of the Small and Big Ilgumen (near the villages of Khabarovka and Kupchegen), in the valley of the Ursul River (between the village of Shashikman and the Kurata River), as well as along the Aktru River in the Tete tract.

Stone sculptures date back to the 7th - 9th centuries and belong to the Turkic era. On these historical and archeological monuments runic inscriptions and drawings have been preserved. On the left bank of the Chui River in the Tete tract there is a stone woman called “Keser”, distinguished by its volumetric shapes and sizes. The sculpture is carved from greenish-gray granite and installed in the middle of the eastern wall of the quadrangular fence, inside which there is a stone platform. The height of the Kezer is 1.6 meters, and the thickness in the belt is 3.4 meters. The sculpture to the knees is dug into the ground.

Near the mouth of Tytygem there are three large stones, which according to Kalmyk legend are considered the graves of the Chinese princess, her maidservant and their horses. According to legend, this princess was married to a Kalmyk zaisan from Ursula, but family turmoil forced her to flee to China . In the Kurai steppe she was stopped by a snowstorm - the girl froze along with the guides. Zaisan chasing them, found the corpses and solemnly buried, laying huge stones on their graves so that no one could steal treasures buried with bodies. But the Chinese, learning about this, moved the stones, dug corpses and treasures, moving them to China.

• Sarycheva T. Traveling along the Chuysky tract, 2002.
• Rudoy A. N. The geomorphological effect and hydraulics of the Late Pleistocene yocullaups of the glacial-dammed lakes of Altai // Geomorphology, 1995. No. 4. p. 61-76.
• Rudoi A.N. Giant ripple of the current (history of research, diagnostics, and paleogeographic significance) - Tomsk: TSPU, 2005. - 228 p.
• Rudoy A.N., Kiryanova M.R. Scientific and Recreational Importance of the Great Geological Monuments of Altai: Towards the Creation of the Altai Glacier Park // Bulletin of the Russian Geographical Society, 2004. Issue. 5, p. 61-69.

• Kurai steppe in photos