Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan is an almost entirely mountainous country: more than ninety per cent of its territory lies above one thousand metres and the Tian Shan runs through it with summits above seven thousand. Between the ranges open high valleys of summer pasture, the jailoo, where transhumant grazing with yurts still goes on. Lake Issyk-Kul, at one thousand six hundred metres of altitude, is one of the largest alpine lakes in the world and never freezes, because of its slight salinity and its depth. In the southwest, at Arslanbob, grow the largest natural walnut forests on the planet, a relict ecosystem that has been harvested for centuries. The high ground, with rock faces and glaciers, holds snow leopards, argali, Siberian ibex and Tian Shan bears.