Karatau Mountains
The Karatau or Qaratau is a mountain range located in southern Kazakhstan.
The name Karatau means Black Mountain in the Kazakh language. The mountains have deposits of phosphorite, lead and zinc.Geography
The range extends for about in a roughly NW/SE direction just north of the Syrdaria River. The Muyunkum Desert lies to the north of the range. The Karatau is the westernmost prolongation of the Tian Shan. The summits of the mountains are smooth and the slopes are cut by snow-fed rivers.There are numerous ancient archaeological sites in the range that display the stages of cultural evolution from the early Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age. This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on September 24, 1998 in the Cultural category.The Karatau Nature Reserve is a protected area in the range established in 2004.
