Altyn Emel national park

January 28, 2026

Altyn Emel national park

Akatau Chalk Mountain

Dirt roads inside Altyn Emel

Day 1: It’s day 16 on my trip to Kazakhistan and Kyrgyzstan. Today (17-May-2025), I am doing the 2-day trip to Altyn Emel National Park. By 7 AM, I’m at the car park next to Alatau metro station. I am travelling with the tour company called “Steppe Spirit”. Catering to a predominantly Russian clientele, they offer some of the most affordable trips to Altyn Emel. It’s all Russian speakers in today’s group; and a Malayali.

Helipad at Altyn Emel

Our group consists of 2 Mistubishi Delicias (those big 4x4 vans). In my vehicle is an intern who can speak a rudimentary English. It’s the first time she’s doing this trip! The ‘main’ guide who does decent english travelling is in the other Delicias. Today we plan to cover approx. 270 KM. An hour or so after leaving Almaty, we pass by a lot of big casinos with names like Mumbai, Macau etc. The roads are excellent until we exit the highway. The village roads were pretty rough but they were being upgraded. And once inside the national park, there are no more roads; it’s just the open steppes. The requirement for an off-roader coupled with the distance from Almaty makes this one of the more expensive package trips from Almaty.

Board beside the ticketing office

We stopped at a village close to the national park to buy entry tickets. There is a small museum attached to the ticket office. There is a big board that says “Altyn Emel State National Nature Park UNESCO Biosphere Reserve” (See photo).

It’s about 3 PM when we get to the first stop; Akatau Chalk Mountain. After we stopped at the car park, the guide gave a long explanation in Russian. When I asked him to translate what he said, he summed it all up in just a few English words!

Luckily, I spotted a large board near the car park that had an English description. Copying some of the inscription from the large board “Akatau Chalk Mountain- a museum of the faraway past- are unique in their beauty. Their age is 400 million years. The mountains appeared in the place where the ancient ocean named Tetis was located in the age of the dinosaurs. The mountain is spread for around 30 KM… … The chalk mountains area worldwide famous paleontological deposit, where the relics of rhinos, crocodiles and turtles from approximately 25-30 million years can be found in the layers of Paleogene-Neologene lacustrine formation… … Mountain surface has almost no vegetation, there are only single Saksaul bushes on rare spots of pebble stones”.

Intrepid explorer traversing Akatau Chalk Mountain

It’s quite hot here. A small group, including me and the intrepid explorer, are following the guide up the mountain. It’s not for the faint hearted. The mountain slope is quite steep and ‘sandy’. As we walk, our feet sink into the ground. Sometimes the soil beneath our feet would give way. The intrepid explorer fell down a few times. Unfazed, she got up and kept pace with the others. We decided not to summit the mountain. As we walk back to the van I picked up a few pieces of white translucent crystalline rocks. These unique stones can be easily found lying scattered everywhere!

Board at Katutau

There are open shelters with natural reed (I think) roof beside the car park. Staying in the shade made the heat bearable. We waited here for a while before driving off.

The next stop was Katutau. It’s a small weathered volcanic rock. Thankfully there is a board that explains the rock formation. I will copy few of the text from the board “Volcanoes that were equal to the Vesuvius and Etna were here in ancient immemorial time. They formed the Katutau mountains with their solidified lava…. The ancient ocean Tetis was situated at the root of these volcanoes. Eruptions were replaced with calm periods and within calm periods, water was corroding volcanic material. Millions of years passed and the ocean was gone. Its bottom perished gradually and finally the buried volcanic vents uncovered."

Katutau

We climbed up the small volcanic rock to have a better view. The same type of weathered rocks can be seen in the vicinity. We spend only a short time here.

The last destination for the day was a 700-year-old willow tree. The tree is quite big. The board next to the tree has an explanation about the exceptional age of the tree. “There is a pond with fish next to the willow tree in the poplar grove. Building structures of a former geological base that was located here are found from the east side. A water well hole with warm (28 C) radon water is located here at the well. Having considered this circumstances, one can assume that it was the water that caused genetic and chromosomic mutations of the giant willow tree. As of today, the data that we have does not allow us to come to the consensus about the influence of chronic irradiation (a process of long-term irradiation at low dosages) on growth of plants…”

800 year old willow tree

The stream that flows beside the willow tree ends up in an adjacent oasis. Legend has it that during the 13th century, the great Genghis Khan stayed at this oasis during his conquests. Locals believe that the tree is sacred and damage to the tree brings bad luck

We stop for the night at a homestay beside the national park ticket counter. It’s large house with many rooms. In my room, the cupboard was filled up with the owner’s clothes! Dinner was home-cooked by the family who run the homestay.

Climbing the Singing Dune or Singing Barkhan

Day 2: To avoid the oppressing heat, we have breakfast by 05:30 and start by 6 AM. Having only one toilet in the homestay for the entire group made it a bit challenging. Our destination is the Singing Dune or Singing Barkhan, situated in the south-central part of Altyn-Emel National Park. There is a board that explains this unique geological formation. “The singing Barchan is a small sandy ridge about 150M high and more than 3 KM long. Its age is supposedly 3000-5000 years. The base of the mountain rests on large sandy hillocks with deep funnels of blowouts between the hillocks. The bottom of the funnel is covered with fine reddish gravel.”

Entrance to Singing Dune

The sand in this dune is believed to have come from an ancient river that existed here eons ago. When the conditions are right and the wind is in the strong enough, the dune produced a sound like the low pitch sound reminiscent of a jet engine. This sound can be heard for a few kilometres away! Today, the wind is strong, but there is no sound.

There are stories many stories associated with the dune. It is believed that Genghis Khan visited this dune. Other legends state that Genghis Khan was buried under this dune.

Vegetation on singing dune

Some of us removed our shoes and started walking up the dune. But the strong wind is blowing sand into our eyes and ears. With a thorthu wrapped around my face, I began the ascent. Yes, the Malayali bought a thorthu to Altyn Emel too! It’s tough walking and the strong winds are a constantly pushing us off course. Me and the intrepid explorer walked halfway up the dune and then turned back. It was a bit scary, yet exiting. Few others from my group went all the way to the top of the summit. The strong winds blew my hat flew off to the leeward side of the dune. When I went to retrieve it, I realised that the leeward side was almost wind free; a peaceful contrast to the sand storm raging on the other side.

My homestay

We return to the guest house. It’s an early lunch at 10:30. On the menu is home cooked Pilaf. Then it was the long drive back. By 15:30 when I reached Almaty.

Blog from 2025 series