Unique Places in Kazakhstan

Cold War tensions existed not only between the Soviet Union and the West, but also between the Soviet Union and China. The Soviet Union had an almost schizophrenic fear that the Chinese would invade. The area near Charyn Canyon is very close to the Chinese border, and during the Soviet era it was one of the most heavily fortified borders in the world. Nowadays, Soviet-era pillboxes that once housed machine guns remain, and are testimony to the Soviet fear of a Chinese invasion. Visitors to Charyn Canyon will see many of these abandoned pillboxes on many of the hillsides.

The arid Sugaty Plain lies east of Almaty. Most travelers will have no reason to visit the Sugaty Plain unless passing through on their way to Charyn Canyon. Birdwatchers, however, come here to look for raptors, sandgrouse, larks, wheatears, and other birds of arid country. The prize here is the Pallas's sandgrouse, a rare bird that is difficult to find outside of Kazakhstan.

Although the Sugaty Plain is relatively arid, it is not part of a true desert. It is one of the numerous areas within the rain shadow of the Tien Shan Mountains that receive little rainfall and are characterized by dry, desert-like terrain. However, more than two-thirds of Kazakhstan's surface area is comprised of desert, including two major deserts, the Qyzylqum and Betpak-Dala, which are located in the southwest part of the country.

Located in Tamgaly Gorge in the Chu-Ili Mountains northwest of Almaty, the Tamgaly Archaeological Complex features the ruins of ancient settlements, burial mounds, and around 5,000 petroglyphs carved on the surfaces of the area's glazed black rock.

For the nomadic peoples who lived on the open steppes, the Tamgaly Gorge offered shelter, and numerous springs and the Tamgaly River provided an abundance of water in an otherwise arid region, assuring lush growth and an abundance of game animals. For these reasons, people have settled in the valley for millenia, leaving evidence of their existence in the form of the remains of their settlements, burial mounds, and rock carvings.

The archaeological complex itself protects the 2,224 acres (900 hectares) with the greatest concentration of petroglyphs, but the surrounding 7,166 acres (2,900 hectares) also contain many rock carvings. The petroglyphs are scattered among 48 different sites, but the largest concentration is within Tamgaly Gorge, which contains about 2,000 of the rock carvings.

Most of the petroglyphs depict deer and hunting scenes, but there are also many solar images and scenes from the daily lives of the people who carved the petroglyphs. Although there are carvings from as late as the early twentieth century, most date from the Bronze Age and are about 4,000 to 5,000 years old.

Tamgaly Gorge also contains the ruins of what are believed to have been altars, suggesting that some sort of sacrificial offerings were made here.

The Tamgaly Archaeological Complex has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Charyn Canyon is located about 120 miles (193 kilometers) southeast of Almaty, close to the Chinese border. The red-rock canyon is one of the most impressive geological formations in Kazakhstan and is the main attraction of Charyn National Park, which was established in 2004 to protect the canyon and the surrounding area. Because it resembles a smaller version of the Grand Canyon in the United States, Charyn Canyon is often referred to as the "Grand Canyon's little brother" or the "Grand Canyon of the Stans."

The canyon cuts through the Torajgir Mountains, an outlier range of the northern Tien Shan Mountains. It was carved into rock strata over the millennia by the Charyn River, and is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) long and attains depths that range between 490 and 980 feet (149 and 199 meters). The black rock at the bottom of the canyon is volcanic basalt, and is the oldest rock in the area. The red rock that gives the canyon its name was formed when layers of reddish gravel were laid down and compressed into rock over thousands of years.

The part of the canyon most often visited is Dolina Zamkov, or the Valley of the Castles, which contains impressive red-rock formations resembling large castles. The castle-like formations are situated along a one-mile (two-kilometer) stretch of the main canyon.

Many people visit the canyon for the famous rapids of the Charyn River, which offer some of the best white-water rafting in Asia. Others, like myself, visit to see birds that are difficult to see outside of Central Asia.

Charyn Canyon is very close to the geographical center of Asia, making it the one spot on the globe the farthest from any ocean.

Located about 18 miles (29 kilometers) south of Almaty, Big Almaty Lake is the main attraction of Alatau-Eliy National Park. The alpine lake is high in the Tien Shan Mountains at an altitude of 8,238 feet (2,511 meters). It is fed by the Almaty River and covers the bottom of the Big Almaty Gorge, which is surrounded by towering mountain peaks. The lake is about one mile (two kilometers) long, one-half mile (one kilometer) wide, and 131 feet (40 meters) deep. Its deep bluish-green color is caused by minerals that are washed down from the mountains and suspended in the water. Because Big Almaty Lake is at such a high elevation, its waters are frigid, and do not get warmer than 46 degrees Farenheit (eight degrees Celcius), even in July.

In addition to deserts and mountains, a significant percentage of Kazakhstan is made up of the Kazakh steppe, which is a vast region of open grassland in the northern part of the country and adjacent areas in Russia. The steppe is a semi-arid grassy plain that gradually changes to true desert in the south. Stretching about 1,367 miles (2,200 kilometers) from the Caspian Depression in the west to the Altai Mountains in the east, and covering 310,619 square miles (804,500 square kilometers), the Kazakh steppe is the largest dry-steppe region on earth. It is here that many of the semi-nomadic Kazakhs tend their flocks of sheep or herds of horses in the summertime.

Most of the water that falls on the steppes comes from violent thunderstorms in the summer that can cause flash flooding, and snows that cover the ground during most of the winter. In early May, millions of wild poppies bloom and turn the steppes red from horizon to horizon.

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Tamgaly Tas is a deep ravine with the walls covered in petroglyphs dating back thousands of years through to the Bhuddistic 16th century CE. Amazing scenes of mammoths,cattle, deer, horses, mountain sheep, men hunting and, in the "Sanctuary" a group of sun-headed gods and worshippers, all in an empty landscape that is so quiet and still the agelessness of the place is palpable. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site

Self-driving isn't really an option in Kazakhstan, so getting to Tamgaly Tas will involve some sort of organization -either a day tour organized through a tourist agency, or a car and driver for the day.

Most of Almaty was razed to the ground by the earthquake of 1911. Subsequently the city became a Soviet satellite, full of massive buildings and vast blocks of flats, but a small pocket of of the old-style Almaty can be found in the Tartar district in the streets behind the zoo. Small wooden houses; often unpaved streets; lots of trees and vegetable gardens; lethal (overhead!) gas piping and a little mosque with its new madrassa, which we were shown with great pride, where classes are held for women and girls as well as men and boys as the community tries to regain their Muslim heritage.

Posted by leyle