Unusual and frequently visited places in the Altyn-Emel National Park -
Organization of tours and travel in the Almaty region -
Katutau Mountains – the most beautiful, bizarrely formed lava mountains, are located in the Altyn-Emel Nature Reserve and are one of its natural attractions. The mountains are streams of solidified lava that erupted from a volcano in this area millions of years ago. "Katutau" in Kazakh is translated as "Severe Mountains", it can also be translated as "Burning Mountains", "Hot Mountains", "Hard Mountains". In the summer, the stone of these mountains heats up to high temperatures and the air above them begins to tremble, creating the effect as if the earth itself is breathing fire, remembering its distant volcanic past. To get to the Katutau Mountains, you need to go to the village of Basshi and get a pass to enter the reserve. Near the mountains in the south are other beautiful mountains Aktau (White Mountains). In the north are the Degeres Mountains and the Matai Mountains.
Katutau are former volcanoes. Millions of years ago, magma boiled here, the earth cracked under the lava, fire fought with stone, and everything around was alive, thundering, scary and majestic. Now the volcanoes are asleep, but the memory remains: solidified lava flows, bizarrely curved shapes, as if a giant sculptor molded the world according to his plan. The rocks here sometimes resemble carved heads, elephants, tongues of flame or ancient sanctuaries lost in the sand. This is a natural gallery, where each turn of the path is like a new exhibition hall. The colors of the Katutau Mountains are a special story and magic. There are red, purple, violet-gray, and brown tones, changing depending on the light. At dawn they are smoky blue, during the day they are scarlet, like the blood of the earth, and at sunset they are like gold that has absorbed eternity. You walk along these mountains and you do not believe that this is reality. It seems that you have entered another world. And it is true: Katutau is another layer of the earth, exposed and shown to us as a revelation.
How to get there and visit -
The Katutau Mountains are located 250 kilometers from the city of Almaty in the Altyn-Emel National Nature Reserve and Park, Kerbulak District, Almaty Region, Republic of Kazakhstan.
GPS coordinates: 44°09'54"N 79°07'50"E (central part of the Katutau Mountains)
GPS coordinates: 43°59'50"N 79°03'13"E (red rocks and red gorge of the Katutau Mountains)
Information -
The Katutau Mountains are a place of power, philosophy, detachment. People don't look for entertainment here, they find answers here. Here you can just sit on a hot stone, breathe in the dry air with the smell of minerals and feel like a grain of sand in eternity. But a meaningful grain of sand. Because such places make you closer to yourself and to the world. Here, every stone is a page of the great geological chronicle. The highest peak, rising to 1,720 meters, is only the tip of a colossal volcanic complex, whose activity began in the Permian period, when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. The thickness of solidified lava, alternating with ash deposits, reaches a thickness of a hundred meters here – like a giant layer cake baked by underground fire. Walking among these ancient rocks, you can read the history of the Earth like an open book: here are rhyolites solidified in bizarre flows, here are andesites preserving bubbles of ancient gases, and there are basalt columns broken into regular hexagons, as if they were carved by an unknown giant. Of particular value are rare intrusions – islands of granite and diorite, embedded in the volcanic mass, like precious stones in a frame.
The southeastern foothills of Katutau present the most unexpected surprise – the Tiger Mountains. Their striped slopes, painted in ochre, red and white tones, really resemble the skin of a predator. These fragile clay formations, eroded by wind and rare rains, have turned into a real open-air museum of sculptures. Here you can see stone mushrooms with caps several meters high, and graceful arches, and entire fields of stone pillars - the work of erosion that has been going on for millions of years. But the main sensation of Katutau is the traces of mud volcanism. These rare geological formations, preserved in the adjacent valleys, are the last witnesses of the stormy youth of these mountains. In their cold craters you can still find outlets of gases and mineralized waters - as if the Earth reminds us that its internal fire is only dormant, and has not gone out forever.
Katutau do not like fuss. They open their souls only to those who are ready to slow down, touch the rough surface of ancient lava with their palm and listen to the silence, which sounds louder than any word here. This is a place where you understand that human life is just a moment compared to the eternity of stones, but it is in such moments that we feel part of something much bigger - the great history of our planet.
Photogallery:
