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25-820: The Min mountain range is a southern prolongation of the Kunlun Mountains that separates the basins of two major rivers of Sichuan: the Min River (to the west) and the Jialing River (to the east). Both rivers flow in the general southern direction, and are tributaries of the Yangtze . The Min Mountains are part of a wider mountainous region: According to the Records of the Grand Historian ,

50-934: A key problem in such canals is ensuring a sufficient water supply. Important examples are the Chicago Portage , connecting the Great Lakes and Mississippi by the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal , and the Canal des Deux Mers in France, connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The name is enshrined at the Height of Land Portage on the route from the Great Lakes in the Atlantic drainage basin to

75-806: Is the bifurcation of the Orinoco in the north of South America , whose main stream empties into the Caribbean , but which also drains into the South Atlantic via the Casiquiare canal and Amazon River . Since ridgelines are sometimes easy to see and agree about, drainage divides may form natural borders defining political boundaries, as with the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in British North America which coincided with

100-599: Is the highest volcano in Asia, not the Kunlun cones.) The last known eruption in the volcanic group was on May 27, 1951. Legendary and mystical mountains are a long-standing aspect of Chinese civilization. Kunlun is originally the name of a mythical mountain believed to be a Taoist paradise . Kunlun is a semi-mythical region not far from the source of the Yellow River. The Kunlun Mountains entered Chinese ideology during

125-529: Is used in Canada and the United States to refer to a drainage divide. It is frequently used in border descriptions, which are set according to the "doctrine of natural boundaries ". In glaciated areas it often refers to a low point on a divide where it is possible to portage a canoe from one river system to another. Drainage divides can be divided into three types: A valley-floor divide occurs on

150-680: The Urstromtäler , for example, between Havel and Finow in the Eberswalde Urstromtal . In marsh deltas such as the Okavango , the largest drainage area on earth, or in large lakes areas, such as the Finnish Lakeland , it is difficult to find a meaningful definition of a watershed. A bifurcation is where the watershed is effectively in a river bed, in a wetland, or underground. The largest watershed of this type

175-746: The Black Sea and the Rienz into the Adriatic . Settlements are often built on valley-floor divides in the Alps. Examples are Eben im Pongau , Kirchberg in Tirol and Waidring (In all of these, the village name indicates the pass and the watershed is even explicitly displayed in the coat of arms). Extremely low divides with heights of less than two metres are found on the North German Plain within

200-802: The Gobi Desert . A number of important rivers flow from the range including the Karakash River ('Black Jade River') and the Yurungkash River ('White Jade River'), which flow through the Khotan Oasis into the Taklamakan Desert . To the south of the Kunlun is the sparsely populated Changtang region, which forms part of the Tibetan Plateau . Altyn-Tagh or Altun Range is one of the chief northern ranges of

225-635: The Keriya area of the western Kunlun Mountains. Some authorities claim that the Kunlun extends further northwest-wards as far as Kongur Tagh (7,649 m) and the famous Muztagh Ata (7,546 m). But these mountains are physically much more closely linked to the Pamir group (ancient Mount Imeon ). The Arka Tagh (Arch Mountain) is in the center of the Kunlun Mountains; its highest points are Ulugh Muztagh (6,973 m) and Bukadaban Feng (6,860 m). In

250-708: The Queen Mother of the West ( Xi Wang Mu ). Stories such as Kuafu chasing the sun, Gonggong's anger touching Buzhou Mountain, and Chang'e flying to the moon all originate from Kunlun mythology. Mao Dun pointed out: According to legend, King Mu (976–922 BCE, Zhou dynasty ) was the first to visit this paradise. There he supposedly found the Jade Palace of the Yellow Emperor , the mythical originator of Chinese culture, and met Hsi Wang Mu (Xi Wang Mu,

275-715: The Warring States period (475–221 BCE), and have become closely integrated into Chinese culture. In the Book of Mountains and Seas , the Kunlun Mountains are mentioned: Which means "The hill of Kunlun, which is the capital of the emperor, and the god of the land." Gu Jiegang divides the Chinese mythology system into the Kunlun system and the Penglai system based on the eastern and western regions. He believes that

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300-984: The World Wildlife Fund as the Qionglai-Minshan conifer forests . Important tourism and nature conservation objects in the Min Mountains include the Jiuzhaigou Valley Nature Reserve (in Jiuzhaigou County ) and the Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area (in Songpan County ); both are listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. Kunlun Mountains The Kunlun Mountains constitute one of

325-661: The Xia dynasty managed this mountain range as early as 2000 BC. The Lazikou Pass , a site of strategical importance during the Long March , passes through the Min Mountains and connects northwestern Sichuan with southern Gansu. The characteristic ecosystem of the Min Mountains and the Qionglai Mountains (which are located further west, separated from the Min Mountains by the Min River valley) has been described by

350-484: The 'Spirit Mother of the West' usually called the ' Queen Mother of the West ') who also had her mythical abode in these mountains. She was the object of a traditional religious cult which reached its peak in the Han dynasty . Water divide A drainage divide , water divide , ridgeline , watershed , water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins . On rugged land,

375-675: The Kunlun. Its northeastern extension Qilian Shan is another main northern range of the Kunlun. In the south main extension is the Min Shan . Bayan Har Mountains , a southern branch of the Kunlun Mountains, forms the watershed between the catchment basins of China 's two longest rivers, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River . The highest mountain of the Kunlun Mountains is the Kunlun Goddess Peak (7,167 m) in

400-799: The bottom of a valley and arises as a result of subsequent depositions, such as scree , in a valley through which a river originally flowed continuously. Examples include the Kartitsch Saddle in the Gail valley in East Tyrol , which forms the watershed between the Drau and the Gail, and the divides in the Toblacher Feld between Innichen and Toblach in Italy , where the Drau empties into

425-570: The closing of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean . The range has very few roads and in its 3,000 km length is crossed by only two. In the west, Highway 219 traverses the range en route from Yecheng, Xinjiang to Lhatse, Tibet. Further east, Highway 109 crosses between Lhasa and Golmud . Over 70 volcanic cones form the Kunlun Volcanic Group. They are not volcanic mountains, but cones. As such, they are not counted among

450-582: The divide lies along topographical ridges , and may be in the form of a single range of hills or mountains , known as a dividing range . On flat terrain, especially where the ground is marshy , the divide may be difficult to discern. A triple divide is a point, often a summit , where three drainage basins meet. A valley floor divide is a low drainage divide that runs across a valley , sometimes created by deposition or stream capture . Major divides separating rivers that drain to different seas or oceans are continental divides . The term height of land

475-535: The eastern Kunlun Mountains the highest peaks are Yuzhu Peak (6,224 m) and Amne Machin [also Dradullungshong] (6,282 m); the latter is the major eastern peak of the Kunlun Mountains and is thus considered as the eastern edge of the Kunlun Mountains. The mountain range formed at the northern edges of the Cimmerian Plate during its collision, in the Late Triassic , with Siberia , which resulted in

500-640: The longest mountain chains in Asia , extending for more than 3,000 kilometres (1,900 mi). In the broadest sense, the chain forms the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau south of the Tarim Basin . Located in Western China , the Kunlun Mountains have been known as the "Forefather of Mountains" in China. The exact definition of the Kunlun Mountains varies over time. Older sources used Kunlun to mean

525-525: The mountain belt that runs across the center of China, that is, Altyn Tagh along with the Qilian and Qin Mountains . Recent sources have the Kunlun range forming most of the south side of the Tarim Basin and then continuing east, south of the Altyn Tagh. Sima Qian ( Records of the Grand Historian , scroll 123) says that Emperor Wu of Han sent men to find the source of the Yellow River and gave

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550-519: The myth of Kunlun In mythology, Kunlun Mountain is the birthplace and ancestral place of the Chinese nation. In mythology, Kunlun Mountain is the center of heaven and earth. It goes up to the sky and is the staircase to the sky. The "Kunlun Mythology" system takes Kunlun Mountain as an iconic place, and mainly focuses on the myths and stories of related characters such as the Yellow Emperor and

575-461: The name Kunlun to the mountains at its source. The name seems to have originated as a semi-mythical location in the classical Chinese text Classic of Mountains and Seas . From the Pamirs of Tajikistan , the Kunlun Mountains run east through southern Xinjiang to Qinghai province. They stretch along the southern edge of what is now called the Tarim Basin , the infamous Taklamakan desert, and

600-662: The ridgeline of the Appalachian Mountains forming the Eastern Continental Divide that separated settled colonial lands in the east from Indian Territory to the west. Another instance of a border matching a watershed in modern times involves the western border between Labrador and Quebec , as arbitrated by the privy council in 1927. Drainage divides hinder waterway navigation . In pre-industrial times, water divides were crossed at portages . Later, canals connected adjoining drainage basins;

625-531: The world volcanic mountain peaks. The group, however, musters the heights of 5,808 metres (19,055 ft) above sea level ( 35°30′N 80°12′E  /  35.5°N 80.2°E  / 35.5; 80.2 ). If they were considered volcanic mountains, they would constitute the highest volcano in Asia and China and second highest in the Eastern Hemisphere (after Mount Kilimanjaro ) and one of Volcanic Seven Summits by elevation. (Mount Damavand

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