Great Almaty Lake Tour

Tour: Great Almaty Lake, Request

Altyn-Emel National Park

Nature-lovers will find an unexpected paradise in the Altyn-Emel National Park. The park covers 90 sq.km between the Ili River and the Ak-Tau mountain range. It is mysterious, beautiful country with a long history and a unique natural environment. Nowhere you can find more amazing remains of the Sacae culture: ancient burial mounds and rock paintings of wild animals and hunting scenes.

Ak-Tau Mountains
The stunning Ak-Tau (White Mountains) are like a museum of the earth`s distant past. Fantastically-shaped natural sculptures rise from the bottom of an ancient sea in all the colours of the rainbow, from the pale blue "lunar landscape" to the "red mountains". These mountains are 30 km long, 1.5-2 km deep - and 400 million years old.
There is a rich variety of wildlife here, with large numbers of jeirans, steppe antelope, mountain goats and sheep, wolves and foxes.

Singing Dune
Another unique wonder of nature is the Singing Sands, 182 km north-east of Almaty, on the right bank of the Ili River. In dry weather this sand-dune emits a sound like an organ playing. The Singing Sands make an unforgettable impression. The humming and vibration are caused by the scarcely perceptible movement of sand sliding down the slope. The friction caused by the movement of the dry grains of sand, combined with the dry air, electrifies them, causing the vibration. Because of the surrounding favourable resonant conditions, powerful sound waves are produced which, bouncing off the solid ground, also cause the dune to vibrate. The sound can be heard from several kilometres away.The dune does not "sing" in wet weather. There are two sandstone hills, Big and Little Kalkan, which are over 120 m high and 4 km long. Despite the looseness of the sand and the strong winds, the singing dune does not move around the plain but has remained in the same place for millennia. Its south-western slope is smooth while the opposite north-eastern side has several ridges with gentle inclines. The dune has a sharp ridge with several protruding peaks, so it is actually possible to ski down it.

Besshatyr
The park has different archeological sites. The most impressive of them are the so called Besshatyr (“Five Tabernacles”) King Mounds. These are huge hills of 20 m high and 100 m in diameter. They are burial places of the Saki chiefs in the 7th-3rd centuries BC. You can see here the ruins of settlements, numerous petroglyphs of animals and hunting scenes. The sight is striking – the mounds, which are quite numerous, shine in the sun as black pearls, at the foot of blue mountains. These structures are more than 2,500 years old. The mounds are amazing in their power, color and beauty. Notably, their tops are somewhat cut off.
The mounds are girded with a ring of menhirs, megalithic structures which remind of the famous Stonehenge in Great Britain . The rocks look like they are lacquered – the so called desert varnish.

The tour price includes:

1. Visa-support (invitation to Kazakhstan)
2. Transfer to a hotel
3. Accommodation in a hotel including breakfast
4. Accommodation in the guest house in the natural park Altyn Emel
5. Meals (3 meals a day)
6. Car rental
7. Driver's services
8. Guide's services
9. Natural park entrance fees
10. Special passes to the natural park
11. Mineral water
12. VAT