It transitions into desert-steppe and desert at its southern margins.

The Altai Mountains that the Pazyryk called home are at the steppe’s eastern edge, where the grassland meets the high-altitude terrain of Central Asia.

For pastoralists on the steppe, the annual movement of animals — up to mountain pastures in summer, down to protected valleys in winter — was the organizing principle of the calendar.

The Pazyryk, like other steppe nomads, timed their ceremonies, their social gatherings, their conflicts, and their trade to the rhythms of this movement.

The steppe is also a corridor.