Ile-Alatau National Park was established on February 22, 1996 on the basis of Kaskelen, Prigorodnyi and Turgen forestry within Karasai, Talgar and Enbekshikazakh districts of Almaty province.
The area of the national park is 202,292 ha; it is located to the south of Almaty on the northern slope of the Trans-Ili Alatau (Tien-Shan). The length of its territory from the Chemoigan River on the west to the Turgen River in the east is 120 km and width - 30-35 km.
In all Trans-Ili Alatau has 265 large and small glaciers.
The National Park is located in the altitude range between 600 and 4540 m above sea level. The highest peak is that of the Constitution (4540 m), the second largest peak is the peak of 2 years of Kazakhstan (4494 m). Several dozen peaks exceed 4000 meters. On the tops of the highest of them are permanent sow and glaciers, The Left Talgar gorge is topped with the Dmitriev Glacier - the largest one on the northern slope of the Trans-Ili Alatau, its area is 17 square km. The glacier of the Constitution is the longest one (5.7 km) and one of the most low-lying glaciers of the park - it comes down to the level of 3270 m. In the source of the Small Almatinka River Tuyuksu glacier lies - one of the most well studied glaciers in the worid.
The nature basis of the park are picturesque forests composed of Schrenk spruce and Sivers apple, hawthorn, wild apricot, Tien-Shan mountain ash and other tree and shrub species.
The flora of the national park is made up of more than 1,200 species of plants. Typical are lush colorful rosaries deciduous and coniferous forests combined with mixed-grass edges. Not without pride we can say that lowlands of the Trans[li Alatau in Semirechye (the Seven Rivers area) are believed by scientists to be the center of origin of cultivated varieties of apples worldwide.
The Red Book includes 36 species of grasses, shrubs and trees. Among them are the most ancient forms of flowers - two types of tulips, one iris and one peony. In need of special protection are mosses listed in the Red Book - pahifissidens macrophyllus and ortotrihum smoothed.
Rich and diverse is the wildlife of the park. The invertebrate fauna has been studied insufliciently. However, to date, more than 2000 species of 8 classes are known. The vertebrate fauna is represented by 245 species. In the mountain rivers and streams found were 8 species of fish: naked and scaly osmans, marinka, minnow, and in the Turgen River - rainbow trout. 4 species of amphibians, two of which (danatens toads and Central Asian frog) are entered in the Red Book of Kazakhstan.
Of the eight species of reptiles inhabiting the park most common are lizards (Alai lidless skink and colorful lizard) and snakes - common and water snakes, colorful and patterned snakes. Rare are poisonous snakes - Orsini's viper and copperhead.
Variety of environment determines the richness of bird species. In general 178 species of them were noticed in the national park. The Red Book includes 11 species (black stork, the eagle dwarf, golden eagle, Himalayan griffon, Barbary falcon, eagle, saker falcon, peregrine falcon and a large rose finch).
There are 47 species of mammals in the park. Most typica| for mountains is the Tien-Shan shrew, rock white-toothed shrew, red creeper, gray marmot, Tien-Shan birch mouse, Vole silver, stone marten, snow leopard, mountain goat. One can see here the wolf, fox, bear, deer, red deer, wild boar, tolai hare and others. The Red Book's group consists of 7 species: Tien-Shan brown bear, snow leopard, marten. Central Asian otter, manul, Turkestan lynx and Indian porcupine.
In the territory of the park there are well preserved medieval towns of Talhiz and Turgay, burial mounds of the early Iron Age on the Assy Plateau and at the Turgen gorge, Sak burial mounds on the banks of the Issyk river.
On the right bank of the Turgen river there are traces of a strong earthquake that occurred here more than 10,000 years ago. This clastic sequence in form of bizarre rocks of various colors is a real monument of nature.
Another monument of nature is relict Chinturgen mossy spruce with an island of permafrost ice, 2-3 m thick, under the cover of moss at a depth of 30-40 cm. The arrays of permafrost at such a low altitude have not been found anywhere else in the Trans-li Alatau.
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