Katun City: a Central Asian Utopia for the Altai People

The Ecotopia 2121 Project details the futures of 10,000 towns and cities across the globe as though they've somehow become super-ecofriendly. This month, we highlight the future utopia of Katun in the Altai Mountains of Central Asia.

The Altai Mountains form a high mountain range where the borders of Russia, Mongolia, and China meet. The Altai people, who live around these mountains, have inhabited the region for more than a thousand years, tracing their ancestry to earlier migrations from parts of western Asia. By the early twenty-first century the name “Altai” had come to refer to three separate provinces—one in each of these countries.

In each of these provinces the Altai people have faced pressure from the dominant populations of Russians, Mongolians, and Han Chinese. Over time they have often been regulated, culturally assimilated, and numerically outnumbered. Expressions of Altai ethnic nationalism have frequently been discouraged or suppressed in several ways: by denying that Altai communities share a common heritage, by keeping Altai groups divided from one another across national borders, and by restricting the practice of their traditional Burkhanism.

The Altai have also experienced environmental injustices. Mining operations and heavy industry have scarred parts of their homeland and damaged the natural landscape that sustained their communities. In the coming century they might simply continue adapting to these pressures. Yet another possibility is that, as political tensions or domestic problems weaken the control of Russia, Mongolia, or China over their frontier regions, Altai communities might begin cooperating more closely and attempt to establish an independent territory.

In this imagined future, Altai leaders encourage their people to move deeper into the remote mountains near the three-country border. There they begin building a new settlement, eventually known as Katun, named after the sacred Katun Glacier in the Altai range. The city itself is not located near the glacier; the name is partly intended to confuse outside observers and make it harder for hostile governments to identify the settlement’s true location.

The city lies deep within steep, nearly impassable mountains. Constant snow, heavy clouds, and drifting mist make it almost invisible from the air, while the rugged terrain prevents vehicles from reaching it easily. If forces from any one of the three surrounding countries attempt to attack Katun, the Altai inhabitants can quickly cross a nearby border on foot. They also know it is extremely unlikely that Russia, Mongolia, and China would coordinate a simultaneous military operation in such difficult terrain.

Although the Altai Mountains might seem like a harsh place to establish a city, the region offers an important advantage. Some scientists consider parts of the high Altai relatively stable in the face of global climate change. While the grasslands of Russia and Mongolia may dry out from increasing drought, and parts of China face destructive monsoon floods, the Altai communities in Katun could continue living in a comparatively stable and predictable natural environment.