The south margin of the Tianshan Mountains has undergone multiple phases of compressional deformation since the Oilgocene and Pleistocene. This deformation created the EW-striking Qiulitag anticline zone, 300 km long and 15 - 20 km wide, which is part of the Kuqa thrust-and-fold belt along the southern piedmont of the Tianshan Mountains. This paper presents a detailed description and analysis of a 3-D geometrical and kinematical model of the Qiulitag anticline zone. Over 3000 km-long 2-D seismic refection profiles, five exploratory wells and 1: 100000 scale geological mapping were used in the analysis. Two different thrust systems characterized by southward tectonic transport were found: an upper imbricate fault zone, which deforms Cenozoic strata with fault-propagation folds in the hanging wall, and a duplex structure of fault-bend-folds and fault ramps composed of Jurassic, Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks. The shallow folds of the Qiulitag anticline zone are tight and asymmetric, while the core of the Qiulitag anticline may be disharmonically folded at the level of Plaeogene shale and gypsum. The restoring balanced cross sections suggest that the minimum shortening of the deep fault system in the Qiulitag anticline zone is more than 10 km and decreases eastwards and westwards along its strike. The ramp height of the deep fault system is 3 km in the east regional cross section (where a sole thrust fault is developed) and declines westwards by 1 km to somewhere an imbricate fault is developed.