Ili

Practically speaking, Yakoob Beg was safe from invasion from the east so long as he maintained order within his own frontier and the Tungani in Ili on his north had manifested no special hostility against his state.

The Ili, rising inside Sinkiang, drains into Lake Balkhash in Soviet Kazakhstan, nearly a thousand miles to the west. Not far inside the USSR, to the south of the Ili on the Turkestan-Siberian Railway, sits Alma-Ata, the capital of the Kazakh SSR. Founded by the Russians a century ago, it contains over 456,000 inhabitants, mainly Russian. From its position, the city is able to command the western approach to the upper Ili. The largest city on the Chinese Ili is Kuldja, a fortress town, with a population well over 110,000.