A view of the Alkhayls from Mezzodiurno countryside
The Alkhayl Mountains are a mountain range which extend from north to south through western edge of Istalia. In the north they constitute a natural border between Istalia and Solentia together with the Nayar Range. The Alkhayl due to their origin, host many vulcanoes.
Description[]
The Alkhayl Mountains are traditionally divided in Lesser Alkhayl and Greater Alkhayl. The former are also called the Northerner massif and geologically are part of the same range of the Nayar from which is diveded by the large Sarrentian Valley, which was formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by an impressive glacier which dug this large valley, but due to the similar age, aspect and height of the two ranges, this western portion of the Nayars initially was considered as part of the Alkhayl, remaining later just a geographical division.
The Greater Alkhayl rise along the south-western coast of the Peninsula from the south-westernmost point of the Lesser Alkhayl to the southern plateau of which constitute the south-western border.
The southern slopes of the Alkhayl host one of the most impressive natural beauty of Istalia, the Alkhayl's Temperate Rainforests, which exist thanks to the climate generated by the influence of the cold streams by the Perarctic Ocean.
The Greater Alkhayl have a different geological origin than the Nayar and the Lesser Alkhayl, the latter, in fact, originated by the so called Dinaric Orogenesis together with many mountain ranges of Majatra.
The Greater Alkhayl instead are the result of other kind of tectonic plate processes, caused both by compression forces and by the subduction of oceanic crust beneath the continental plate and which has given rise to an important vulcanic activity interesting most part of the coastal ranges all over southern Majatra.
Name[]
The name of the mountains came from the Majatran language which litterarly means "The Horses" (الخيل translitt. Al Kuyul) which in turn derives from a more ancient term meaning almost the same. Today it is not known why such a name was adopted.