• Mesa
  • Kazak Autonomous County of Aksay  

A mesa is an isolated, flat-topped elevation, ridge or hill, which is bounded from all sides by steep escarpments and stands distinctly above a surrounding plain. Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a more resistant layer or layers of harder rock, e.g. shales overlain by sandstones. The resistant layer acts as a caprock that forms the flat summit of a mesa. The caprock can consist of either sedimentary rocks such as sandstone and limestone; dissected lava flows; or a deeply eroded duricrust. Unlike plateau, whose usage does not imply horizontal layers of bedrock, e.g. Tibetan Plateau, the term mesa applies exclusively to the landforms built of flat-lying strata. Instead, flat-topped plateaus are specifically known as tablelands.

Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County (Aksai County for short) belongs to Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, and is located at the confluence of Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces (regions). It is the only ethnic minority autonomous county with Kazak as the main body in Gansu Province. it is also one of the three Kazak autonomous counties in the people's Republic of China. Aksai County has a total area of 31000 square kilometers, with an average elevation of 3200 meters, and has jurisdiction over 2 townships and 1 town. Aksai County is home to 11 ethnic groups, including Kazakh, Han, Hui, Uygur, Salar and Tibetan, with a total population of more than 10600 (2014), of which more than 3700 are Kazakh (2014), accounting for 34.8% of the total population. The available grassland area of the county is 14.8 million mu, and the normal annual livestock carrying capacity is 189000 sheep units. Major rivers in Aksai County
Travel Guides In Kazak Autonomous County of Aksay  
Travel Sights In Kazak Autonomous County of Aksay  
Travel Notes In Kazak Autonomous County of Aksay