page_title: Batken Region
section_title: Travel
hierarchical_section_title: Batken Region / Travel
caption_attribution_description: A school near Batken, Kyrgyzstan. The inscription reads "Dear excellent child of an excellent state, know that your motherland awaits you" in Uzbek. The lines are from a Gʻafur Gʻulom poem.
context_page_description: Batken Region is a region of Kyrgyzstan. Its capital is Batken. It is bounded on the east by Osh Region, on the south, west and north by Tajikistan, and on the northeast by Uzbekistan. The northern part of the region is part of the flat, agricultural Ferghana Valley. The land rises southward to the mountains on the southern border: the Alay Mountains in the east, and the Turkestan Range in the west.
  The population of the region was reported as 380,256 by the census of 2009. Of them, 24.2 per cent lived in the region's four towns and five urban-type settlements, and 75.8 per cent in the rural areas. The majority of the region's population are Kyrgyz; there are also Uzbeks and Tajiks, as well as a few Russians, Tatars, and Turks.
  Batken Region was created on 12 October 1999, from the westernmost section of Osh Region. This was partly in response to the activities of the Islamic Movement for Uzbekistan, with bases in Tajikistan. In 1999 they kidnapped a group of Japanese geologists and in 2000 some American climbers. In the two years, 49 Kyrgyz soldiers were killed.
context_section_description: The southern mountains offer excellent, but very difficult climbing with many sheer rock faces. Summits are Pyramid Peak [5,509 meters (18,074 ft)] and Pik Skalistiy [5,621 meters (18,442 ft)].
caption: School at Batken area
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