Yeah, you never know...
But still, in 1071 (give or take a few centuries) there was no city
at Kyzyl, and certainly no city named Kyzyl there.
The city was founded in 1914 with the name Belocarsk (i.e. city of
the "White Czar"). After the passing away of that czar, the city was
renamed Hem-Beldyr. Hem is the Tuvan name for the Enisej river;
Beldyr means confluence (the Great and Little Enisej unite here). In
1926, after the "friendship treaty" of the Tuvan People's Republic
with the USSR, the name was changed to Kyzyl, Tuvan for "Red".
This information comes from a very interesting little booklet, "Imena
gorodov - vc^era i segodnja (1917-1992)", a little dictionary of city
name changes in the Soviet Union, by E.M. Pospelov
A fascinating little book, if you know Russian.
Peter S.
PS: The name of the republic is Tuva, the adjective is Tuvan. When it
was independent, it was known as Tannu-Tuva.
PPS: And they have a very peculiar and beautiful way of singing.
Imagine making three different tones with one voice at the same time!
--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., Todd Clare <toddclare1@y...> wrote:
> Grant wrote:
>
> > The obelisk is in the Tuvan capital Kyzyl, near
> > the Yenisei River.
> > (That neat location is pretty suspect, don't you
> > think?)
>
> But, actually, here is what may have happened.
>
> In the year 1071 (give or take a few centuries), the
> then-recently-formed Tuvanian government was pondering
> long and hard as to what would be the best place to
> establish a new city called Kyzyl, which was to become
> the capital of Tuvan.
>
> Just then, some very early (pre-Internet)
> BoundaryPoint adherents happened to be passing through
> Tuvan on a boundary/monument observation mission. They
> lost no time pointing out to the Tuvanians that the
> very center of Asia happened to fall within the
> borders of Tuvan. Thus, it was unanimously agreed that
> that would be the best place to found Kyzyl.
>
> And so it came to pass. The original "Centre of Asia"
> monument was erected soon thereafter in downtown
> Kyzyl.
>
> So, you see, there is nothing at all suspect here
> (except, perhaps, the above apocryphal account).
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Grant Hutchison [mailto:granthutchison@c...]
> > Sent: Monday, October 15, 2001 6:20 PM
> > To: BoundaryPoint@y...
> > Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Re: Centre of Asia marker
> >
> >
> > Jesper:
> > > Where is the marker (apart from at the center of
> Asia of course :-
> > ) )?
> > I've sent this before but it hasn't appeared, though
> subsequent
> > messages have. No doubt both postings will now
> appear simultaneously.
> > The obelisk is in the Tuvan capital Kyzyl, near the
> Yenisei River.
> > (That neat location is pretty suspect, don't you
> think?)
> > Kyzyl is at 51 45 N 94 28 E.
> >
> > Grant
> >
> >
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