Altai Mountains

The Altai Mountains are a Central Asian range where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, covering about 845,000 square kilometers and stretching 2,525 kilometers from northwest to southeast between roughly 45 and 52 degrees north latitude. Its highest peak, Belukha, reaches 4,506 meters, followed by Khuiten Peak at 4,374 meters, and the range is the source of the Irtysh and Ob rivers; it merges with the Sayan Mountains to the northeast and grades into the Gobi Desert toward the southeast. A sparse but ethnically diverse population of Turkic peoples, Mongols and Volga Germans lives by herding, hunting, farming, forestry and mining across the range, and a 16,178-square-kilometer area of the Altai was inscribed as the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO World Heritage Site.