Castles Valley In Charyn River Canyon

Day 1: Almaty, Kazakhstan to Charyn Canyon National Park, Tamerlik, Kazakhstan

Excursion to visit the Charyn Canyon which is 200 km away from Almaty. The road to the “Castles Valley” comes across Sogety Valley, spread between Ketmen and Ulken-Bogetty ridges. Poets call this place “workshop of a sculptor named Wind”, Kazakhstani tourists consider it to be one of the most exotic leisure locations of these parts, and rafters say this place is a heaven for extreme sport lovers. This is a “lost world” which is impossible to walk by without looking inside. Come un-foreknowable forces seem to crack open the time itself, disclosing the very depth of it. The Canyon is a unique monument of nature, where the millenniums of weathering processes in sedimentary rocks have created specific relief forms – residual mountains looking like poles, giant columns, towers, and chapels. The canyon’s length is 150 km, “Castles Valley” is more than 2 km long, depth down to 200 meters. There is completely no topsoil in the area, residuals are without any vegetation. In the canyon’s bottom, there are traces of temporary water flows. Plants such as bushes of Siberian pea shrub, tamarisk, saxaul, Asiatic poplar, and ephedra can be found here. Among animals – rock partridge, sand lances, hares.