KUEN LUN, also written Konen Lun, as seen from Sumgal in Turkestan, is in lat. 36° 8' N., and long. 78° 5' E., and 13,215 feet above the sea. It is part of the great mountain range in Central Asia which bounds the high table-land of Tibet. The range is known to the nations who see it near and from afar by various names. It is their Belur-tagh, meaning Ice Mountain ; it is the Bulut-tagh of Captain Strachey, meaning Cloud Mouutain ; Mus-tagh or Muz-tagh is another name ; Kara-korum is a Turki word, meaning Black Mountains ; the Tsun Lun, or Onion Mountain, is given to it because of the abundance there of a species of AlliumTian Shan of the Chinese, or Celestial Mountain, is applied to it because of its great height ; and Haro-berezaiti (Albordsh) of the Zendavesta is an ancient name. The range stretches over a space of 27 degrees of longitude, or more than 1500 miles, forming in its whole length the north frontier of Tibet, as the Himalaya does that of the south.
The Konen Lun is the true watershed between India and Central Asia, the Indus absorbing the streams which flow from the southern slopes of the range, while the northern rivers which form the Karakash force their way through or round the outer barrier of the Konen Luu, and wend northward to the Gobi or Sandy Desert. In the Konen Luu all passes above 15,000 feet are closed in winter by the heavy snowfall. Two systems of cleavage are particularly regular in the central parts of the Kouen Lun ; the steeper one dips north 30° to 50° east, the other south to 40° west. A hard crystalline rock occurs, not unlike pudding - stone, which contains en closures of spherical and angular forms. The quarries where the Yaslim stone is dug are at Gulbagashen, in the valley of Karakash. See Karakorum.