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Kazakhstan
About Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is a vast and surprising country in Central Asia - a place of wide open landscapes and quiet adventure. Here you’ll find mountains, deep canyons, clear alpine lakes, open steppe, and long scenic roads that feel made for travel.
It’s easy to explore, uncrowded, and still very real. You move at a natural pace, stop often, eat simple local food, and see daily life far from mass tourism. Adventure here isn’t complicated - it’s comfortable, flexible, and deeply rewarding.
Kazakhstan is an ideal place to start your journey through Central Asia.
Things to do in Kazakhstan
Highlights
Altyn Emel: Aktau Mountains
The Aktau Mountains are a surreal, almost lunar landscape of white, pink, red, and green striped hills in Altyn Emel National Park. "Aktau" means "white mountains" in Kazakh, referring to the pale clay and chalk layers that dominate the lower sections. The colors come from different mineral compositions in the sedimentary layers: clays (white, gray), iron oxides (red, pink), and in some areas, copper compounds (green streaks). The hills are soft badlands-easily eroded, constantly shifting. Walking through Aktau feels like moving through a geology textbook: you're looking at ancient lakebed and floodplain deposits from 25-30 million years ago, when this was a very different climate.
Altyn Emel: Singing Dune
The Singing Dune is a 3-kilometer-long, 150-meter-high sand ridge in Altyn Emel National Park, roughly 280 km northeast of Almaty. When the wind blows or when you slide down the dune's face, the sand produces a low-frequency hum-sometimes described as a drone or subsonic vibration. The phenomenon occurs because the sand grains are dry, rounded, and uniform in size, allowing them to vibrate in sync when they move. The dune sits in an arid basin between the Ili River and the Dzungarian Alatau mountains. It's not part of a larger desert; it's an isolated sand formation, held in place by surrounding terrain and wind patterns.
Assy Plateau
Assy Plateau is a high, flat grassland between the Turgen Gorge and the Bartogay Reservoir, at 2,300-2,700 meters elevation. The plateau is a traditional summer pasture (*jailyau*), and in summer, you'll see yurts, herds of horses and sheep, and herders living the seasonal pastoral life. At the western edge of the plateau sits the Assy-Turgen Observatory, established in the 1980s for astronomical research. The high altitude, clear air, and low light pollution make it an excellent site for stargazing. Visitors can sometimes arrange tours of the observatory, though access depends on current operations.
Baikonur Cosmodrome
Baikonur Cosmodrome is the world's first and largest operational space launch facility, located in the desert steppes of south-central Kazakhstan. Construction began in 1955 as a secret Soviet missile test site. On October 4, 1957, Sputnik 1-the first artificial satellite-launched from here. On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, lifting off from Baikonur's Site 1 (now called "Gagarin's Start"). The facility is still active, conducting over 20 launches per year, mostly Russian crewed and cargo missions to the International Space Station. It's leased by Russia from Kazakhstan until 2050.
Bartogai Reservoir
Bartogay Reservoir was created in 2016 with the completion of a dam on the Chilik River, a tributary of the Ili. The dam is part of a flood control and irrigation project, built after a catastrophic mudflow in 1963 (which destroyed the original Issyk Lake) highlighted the need for better water management in the region. The reservoir is surrounded by semi-arid hills and offers views of the mountains to the south. It's become a spot for fishing, picnicking, and escaping the city, though facilities are still limited.
Big Almaty Lake
Big Almaty Lake sits at 2,511 meters in the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains, about 30 km south of Almaty. The lake is a natural alpine reservoir that supplies drinking water to the city, which means access is regulated and you can't swim or picnic right on the shore. The water's color shifts from pale green to deep turquoise depending on the season, light, and sediment levels-fed by glacial meltwater from the surrounding peaks. It's one of the easiest high-altitude destinations near Almaty: paved road almost to the viewpoint, dramatic mountains on all sides, and you can be back in the city for lunch.
Tours in Kazakhstan
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Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan Grand Crossing
Grand Zhetysu: Altyn Emel, Three Lakes & Charyn Camp
Altyn Emel: Aktau Mountains & the Singing Dune
Kolsai, Kaindy & Charyn with Overnight
Almaty Panorama
