The Fergana natural-geographic district

The Fergana district lies in the Fergana Valley and is ringed by mountains: the Mogoltau and Kurama in the north-west, the Chatkal in the north, the Fergana range in the east, and the Alay and Turkestan ranges in the south. On the map the valley looks like an almond; it stretches about 370 km from west to east, is on average 190 km wide, and its narrowest place in the west is called the “Khujand Gate” (about 9 km). The flat part of the valley is the Fergana Depression, surrounded by adir and mountains. It is a tectonic sag that the sea covered earlier and that was later filled with sand, clay and loess-like rock brought by rivers. The mountains rose in the Paleozoic during the Hercynian folding. The surface falls towards the centre and the west: Fergana city lies at 578 m, Andijan 496 m, Namangan 449 m and Kokand 405 m. In the centre are the Yazyavan and Karakalpak deserts (sand ridges and moving barchans); many of them have now been levelled and turned into fields. In the foothills alluvial fans laid down by rivers (the largest by the Sokh) have been farmed since long ago. There are deposits of oil, gas, sulphur, mountain wax, refractory clay and gypsum.