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Dzungaria (also Jungaria, Sungaria, Zungaria; Mongolian: Зүүнгар Züüngar, simplified Chinese: 准噶尔; traditional Chinese: 準噶爾; pinyin: Zhǔngáěr, Russian: Джунгария Dzhungariya) is a geographical region covering approximately 777,000 km², lying mostly within the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of northwestern China, and extending into western Mongolia.

Contents 1 Geography and geology 1.1 Prehistory 2 Ecology 3 History 4 People 5 Economy 6 References and external links

Dzungaria is a largely steppe and semi-desert basin surrounded by high mountains: the Tian Shan in the south and the Altai in the north. Geologically it is an extension of the Paleozoic Kazakhstan Block and was once part of an independent continent before the Altai mountains formed in the late Paleozoic. It does not contain the abundant minerals of Kazakhstania and may have been a pre-existing continental block before Kazakhstan is formed.

Urumqi, Yining and Karamai are the main cities; other smaller oasis towns dot the piedmont areas.

Dzungaria and its derivatives are used to name a number of pre-historic animals hailing from the rocky outcrops located in an eponymous sedimentary basin of that region, the Junggar Basin.

• Dsungaripterus weii (pterosaur)
• Junggarsuchus sloani (crocodylomorph)

A recent notable find, in February 2006, is the oldest tyrannosaur fossil unearthed by a team of scientists from George Washington University who were conducting a study in the Junggar Basin. The species, named Guanlong, lived 160 million years ago, more than 90 million years before the famed Tyrannosaurus rex.^{[citation needed]}

Dzungaria is home to a semi-desert steppe ecoregion known as the Junggar Basin semi-desert. The vegetation consists mostly of low scrub of Anabasis brevifolia. Taller shrublands of saxaul bush (Haloxylon ammodendron) and Ephedra przewalskii can be found near the margins of the basin. Streams descending from the Tian Shan and Altai ranges support stands of poplar (Populus diversifolia) together with Nitraria roborovsky, N. sibirica, Achnatherum splendens, tamarisk (Tamarix sibirimosissima), and willow (Salix ledebouriana).

The northeastern portion of the Junggar Basin semi-desert lies within Great Gobi National Park, and is home to herds of Asian wild ass (Equus hemionus) and goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa), and wild Bactrian camels (Camelus ferus).

The basin was one of the last habitats of Przewalski's Horse (Equus przewalskii), which is now extinct in the wild.

Dzungaria is named after a Mongolian kingdom which existed in Central Asia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It derived its name from the Dzungars, who were so called because they formed the left wing (züün, left; gar, hand) of the Mongolian army. It was raised to its highest pitch by Kaldan (also known as Galdan Boshigtu Khan) in the latter half of the 17th century, but completely destroyed by the Qing government about 1757-1759. It has played an important part in the history of Mongolia and the great migrations of Mongolian stems westward.

In 1911, its territory fell partly to the Qing Empire (Xinjiang also known as East Turkestan, and north-western Mongolia) and partly to Russian Turkestan (provinces of Semirechye and Semipalatinsk).

Its widest limit included Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, the whole region of the Tian Shan, and in short the greater proportion of that part of Central Asia which extends from 35º to 50º N and from 72º to 97º E.

As a political or geographical term Dzungaria has practically disappeared from the map; but the range of mountains stretching north-east along the southern frontier of the Land of the Seven Streams, as the district to the south-east of Lake Balkhash preserves the name of Dzungarian Alatau. It also gave name to Dzungarian Hamsters.

The population consists of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Mongols, and Han Chinese. Since 1953 there has been a massive influx of Han Chinese to work on water conservation and industrial projects.

Wheat, barley, oats, and sugar beets are grown, and cattle, sheep, and horses are raised. The fields are irrigated with melted snow from the permanently white-capped mountains.

Dzungaria has deposits of coal, iron, and gold, as well as large oil fields.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

• Junggar Basin semi-desert (WWF)
• Junggar Basin semi-desert (National Geographic)