Geography of Tajikistan has headwaters in Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The other neighbors are the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan (to the west and the north) and Kyrgyzstan (to the north). The lower elevations of Tajikistan are divided into northern and southern regions by a complex of three mountain chains that constitute the westernmost extension of the massive Tian Shan system. Running essentially parallel from east to west, the chains are the Turkestan, Zeravshan (Zarafshan), and Hisor (Gissar) mountains. The last of these lies just north of the capital, Dushanbe, which is situated in west-central Tajikistan. More than half of Tajikistan lies above an
Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic time period of Gorno-Altai being an ASSR. Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic The Gorno-Altai Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic () was an autonomous republic within the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic of the Soviet Union. It was formed on 1 June 1922 as the Oyrot Autonomous Region and became the Gorno-Altai Autonomous Oblast on 7 January 1948. It was upgraded to the level of Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 25 October 1990, and was declared a Soviet Socialist Republic on 3 July 1991, although it was not recognised as one. It became the Altai Republic on 31 March 1992. Its capital