Map of the Lake Balkhash drainage basin showing the Ili River and its tributaries
The
Ili River (,
İle, ; ) is a
river in northwestern
China (
Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of the
Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) and southeastern Kazakhstan (the
Almaty Province).
It is long, of which in Kazakhstan. It takes its beginning in eastern
Tian Shan from the
Tekes and
Kunges (or
Künes) rivers. The Ili River drains the basin between the Tian Shan the
Borohoro (
P'o-lo-k'o-nu) Mountains to the north.
Flowing into
Lake Balkhash it forms a large
delta with vast wetland regions of lakes, marshes and jungle-like vegetation.
Chinese region
The upper Ili Valley is separated from the
Dzungarian Basin by the Borohoro Mountains. The city of
Yining (Kulja) is located on the northern side of the river some upstream from the international border. Until the early 1900s, the city was commonly known under the same name as the river, 伊犁 (Pinyin: Yili;
Wade-Giles: Ili).
On the southern side, even closer to the border,
Qapqal Xibe Autonomous County is located, which is home to many of the China's
Xibe people. The upper Ili was occupied by Russia from 1871 to 1881, that is, from the
Yaqub Beg rebellion to the
Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881).
Kazakh region
The part of Kazakhstan drained by the Ili and its tributaries is known in Kazakh as
Zhetysu ('Seven Rivers') or in Russian as
Semirechye (the same meaning).
The
Kapchagai Hydroelectric power station was built from 1965 to 1970 in the middle flow of the Ili River, forming the Kapchagay Reservoir—a lake north of
Almaty.
Tamgaly-Tas, some downstream along Ili River is a site of
rock drawings. The name
Tamgaly in
Kazakh means
painted or
marked place,
Tas -
stone.
Tributaries include
Historical connections
Ili river gave a name to
Ili river treaty of 638 CE, which formalized a division of the
Turkic Kaganate (552-638 CE) into
Western Turkic Kaganate and
Eastern Turkic Kaganates, with the border between two states fixed along the Ili river.
