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.
Nilak, which is Mongolian, means "baby". Nilke County is located in the northwest of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, bordering Yining County in the west, Gongliu County in the southwest, Xinyuan County in the southeast, Hejing County in the east and Jinghe County in the north. The county extends from east to west, showing a long strip, like a willow leaf, with a total area of 10129.95 square kilometers, with 1 town and 10 townships (including 1 ethnic township) under the jurisdiction of the county. The northern part of the territory is Kogurqin Mountain, Blekonu Mountain and Ilian Habiga Mountain, while in the south is the Abu Gerle Mountain, with four mountains sandwiched with a valley, high in the east and low in the west, high in the north and low in the south, tilting from northeast to southwest. By the end of 2015, Nilke County had jurisdiction over 10 townships, 1 town and 2 games, with a total of 189763 people, composed of 32 ethnic groups, including Han, Kazakh, Uygur, Hui and Mongolia. Tourism resources of Nilek County