Altyn-Emel National Park, one of Kazakhstan’s largest, is known for its mountains, sand deserts, sandstone formations, and steppes. Located between the Ili River and the Aktau mountains, it covers 4,600 square kilometers although drives have to be kept to three tourist routes.
We were travelling in a 4WD Lexus but were told we needed a ‘special’ vehicle and hoped for an open-sided safari Landrover but got an older, more battered version of ours. This was the first of what were many disappointments. From our overnight accommodation in the village of Basshi, it was only a short drive to the park entrance where we collected our pass and where we appeared to be the first visitors of the day as the barrier was still padlocked.
We took tourist route one, for the 46km drive to the Singing Dune, one of the park’s major highlights. The wind makes the sand emit a rumbling sound: a light breeze gives a barely audible squeak, while strong gusts produce a more intense sound, similar to an organ. On arrival, we trekked through deep sand to the bottom of what was a huge sand dune and began climbing. When the wind began gusting, it became harder and harder to trudge through the sand which was well over our boots. We were then told that once we reached the top at 150m, we would need to walk along the 3km ridge to hear the singing. Now, whilst I don’t like to be a defeatist, I realised we were never even going to make it to the top, so we began retracing our steps, which had literally disappeared. We then had the option of climbing the ‘smaller’ mountain/dune, which looked equally impossible. On our descent our guide Mariia, suggested sliding down on our bottoms which could result in vibrations and singing, but by now we’d had enough, and I didn’t fancy getting sand in my pants! We watched a couple of young men as they began their hike and despite them probably being at least thirty years younger than us, they struggled to the top and didn’t appear to be carrying on.
A 2km drive took us to the next ‘attraction’ Shokan Valikhanov’s Spring where in 1856, the famous Kashgar expedition headed by Shokan Valikhanov, a great Kazakh scientist, educator and traveler, stopped to rest. Since then, the spring has been revered as sacred by the local people. Having walked down a few steps to rocks with no sign of water, Mariia elicited the help of the driver who confirmed that the dry channel was where the water should flow from. The most interesting feature was a nearby piece of hosepipe and part of an animal vertebrae propped up against a rock.
Another 7km took us to the Oshaktas Columns, but at only 2m tall they were decidedly underwhelming. According to popular legend, in 1219 when Genghis Khan stayed here to rest, they set a giant cauldron nearby and provided food for the whole army. However, academics have dismissed this theory as Genghis Khan was not in the region and the rock pillars are from a much earlier era.
On the drive back to our guest house for lunch we spotted a couple of gazelle on the flat plains, and this remained our only animal sighting, although the park is said to be the home of 260 different species.
We hoped the afternoon’s tourist route 2 would prove more interesting. Our first stop was at a 700-year-old willow tree which appeared to be two or three trees although it clearly was very old. Although the tree is said to be protected, it seemed odd that a relatively modern house had been built right next to it. I am obviously not alone in my thoughts, as both the tree and adjacent house was the subject of an oil painting in the 2024 Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy.
After driving 72km we reached the farthest of two mountain ranges. The Aktau Mountains have multi coloured sedimentary rocks, which have formed gorges and canyons over time. There was a yellow frame for photographs before we clambered down to the dried riverbed and had a short walk.
On our way back, we stopped at Katutau, the most extensive and highest desert mountains of Altyn-Emel and the site of a large extinct volcano. Again, there was a yellow frame which took in a huge piece of interestingly shaped lava. We walked a little, but when it started to rain, we didn’t linger.
Driving back out of the park, we saw fabulously interesting cloud formations all around us and it was hard to determine whether the sun could come out or it would pour down.
Despite spending several hours in the park, the number of other visitors we encountered could be counted on two hands.
On reflection we would not have chosen to visit the park for several reasons: it’s remoteness means a stay of two nights; because of the scale, there is a significant amount of driving on narrow very bumpy tracks; and finally, the sights are not particularly impressive. We were just glad our itinerary didn’t include tourist route 3 as well.
