From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Eurasian Steppe (sometimes referred to collectively as The Steppes or The Steppe) is the term often used to describe the vast steppe ecoregion of Eurasia stretching from the western borders of the steppes of Hungary to the eastern border of the steppes of Mongolia. Most of the Euro-Asian Steppe is included within the region of Central Asia while only a small part of it is included within Eastern Europe. The term Asian Steppe usually describes the Euro-Asian Steppe without its most western parts, i.e. the steppes of western Russia, Ukraine and Hungary.

The Eurasian Steppe was the place from where nomadic horse archers, such as the Great Horde of Genghis Khan, invaded the civilizations of China, the Middle East, South Asia and Europe.

The World Wildlife Fund divides the Euro-Asian Steppe into a number of ecoregions, distinguished by elevation, climate, rainfall, and other characteristics, and home to distinct communities of plants and animals.

• Alai-Western Tian Shan steppe (Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan)
• Altai steppe and semi-desert (Kazakhstan)
• Daurian forest steppe (China, Mongolia, Russia)
• Emin Valley steppe (China, Kazakhstan)
• Kazakh forest steppe (Kazakhstan, Russia)
• Kazakh steppe (Kazakhstan, Russia)
• Kazakh upland (Kazakhstan)
• Mongolian-Manchurian grassland (China, Mongolia, Russia)
• Pontic steppe (Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine)
• Sayan Intermontane steppe (Russia)
• Selenge-Orkhon forest steppe (Mongolia, Russia)
• South Siberian forest steppe (Russia)
• Tian Shan foothill arid steppe (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan)

• Steppe
• Grassland
• Puszta
• Great Alföld
• Little Alföld
• Central Asia
• Pontic steppe
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan
• Kazakhstan
• Siberia

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• Grousset, Rene, The Empire of the Steppes: a History of Central Asia, Naomi Walford, (tr.), New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1970.
• Krader, Lawrence, "Ecology of Central Asian Pastoralism," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, Vol. 11, No. 4, (1955), pp. 301-326.
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