The Ili River (Kazakh: Іле, İle; Russian: Или; Chinese: 伊犁河; pinyin: Yīlí Hé; Mongolian: Ил, literally "Bareness") is a river in northwestern China (Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region) and southeastern Kazakhstan (the Almaty Province).
It is 1,439 km (894 mi) long, 815 km (506 mi) of which is 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 and 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 thicket vegetation.
Read more about Ili River: Etymology, Chinese Region, Kazakh Region, Tributaries Include, Historical Connections
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“Every incident connected with the breaking up of the rivers and ponds and the settling of the weather is particularly interesting to us who live in a climate of so great extremes. When the warmer days come, they who dwell near the river hear the ice crack at night with a startling whoop as loud as artillery, as if its icy fetters were rent from end to end, and within a few days see it rapidly going out. So the alligator comes out of the mud with quakings of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)