Charyn canyon – Valley of castles

The canyon got its name after the Charyn River, flowing along its bottom. This attraction enjoys the proud title of “The younger brother of the American Grand Canyon”. Charyn Canyon is located 210 kilometers away from the large city of Almaty. It’s not far from the Chinese border – less than 140 kilometers. The canyon is an integral part of the huge Charyn National Park. It was founded in 2004. By the way, the local river is one of the largest in the region. It is more than 400 kilometers long, with its headwaters locating in the highlands of the Ketmen mountain range. The main tributaries of the Charyn River are Karkara and Temirlik.

The Charyn River has extremely ancient history of 14 million years! Over the years, it managed to drill a canyon through the mighty mountains. It is a bit over 150 kilometers long. Its unusual and very attractive relief catches one’s sight. Its slopes, hills, columns, arches and many other elements created by the nature look amazing. Carved by water, winds and melting ice masses in ancient sedimentary rocks. Moreover, the height of these objects is impressive as well. It sometimes reaches up to 300 meters. Tourists are fascinated by such fantastic shapes; it looks as if the earth opened wide here, forming a deep crack.

The Valley of Castles is justifiably the best place to visit here. This is not about human-made buildings. The valley is formed by the rocks of an unusual shape. They look like ancient castles, which is why they got such a name. Indeed, the landscape of the Valley is unique; there is no other such place on the planet. Sometimes, it even seems that this place was created by an alien civilization.

You can visit the Canyon and Valley at any time. However, in January it is cold here, the temperature drops to -6. Strong winds blowing tourists off their feet. But in summer it’s, on the contrary, hot. Often the temperature exceeds 30 degrees in shade. Snow falls not so often in winter; the snow cover height doesn’t exceed 20 centimeters. If you visit the canyon in summer, be sure to take water, sun screen and light long-sleeved clothes.

The canyon is unique due to the various species of its flora and fauna.

For example, only in this place you can see about 1.5 thousand plant species (with 17 species being very rare and listed in the national Red Book and being protected by the state).

On the canyon territory, you can see a unique relic ash (ash Sogdian). This tree managed to survive the destructive glaciation that existed before the Quaternary, when many plant and animal species were destroyed! During the Miocene and Pliocene periods, the waters of the ancient Ili Lake splashed here. The Sogdian ash tree grove reaches almost 5 thousand hectares. In the lower reaches of the river, there is the Turang Grove – the Asian poplar grove. Next to the river valley, you can find dense thickets of barberry and tamarisk. Besides the original representatives of the flora, familiar willows with poplars can be seen.

The local park has more than 60 animal species, 103 species of birds and 25 species of reptiles. Of course, hares, foxes, corsacs, weasels, gerbils and rare mountain goats are more likely to catch the eye. This is a traditional situation for the mountains. Some birds are also included in the Red Book. For example, the local owls, bluestem, kumai, golden eagles and vultures are on the verge of extinction and are carefully protected. If you wander around, you can find such reptiles as a gecko, agama and copperhead snake, whip snakes, water snakes.

The video has been kindly provided by Oleg Paramonov – the constant anchorman of the “Unknown Kazakhstan” show.