Khantau

Khantau rises above the country of the Chu valley, a landscape associated with the early history of the Kazakh Khanate. In the fifteenth century, the khans Kerey and Janibek established their following in the western Seven Rivers after separating from Abu'l-Khayr. The Chu valley and the Khantau hills became part of the early centre of their power, at the meeting of mountain pastures and the open steppe.