We had an "early" breakfast at 7:30 a.m.
After breakfast, we visited the museum in the Altyn Emel National Park Office
The Altyn Emel National Park, founded in 1996 and covering 5,200 km2, stretches along the nothestern side of the Kapshagay Reservoir and the north bank of the Ile River before it flows into the reservoir. It is said that in 1219 Genghis Khan (成吉思汗) and his army passed through here, Standing on the pass of the last mountain ridge before entering he Ile Plain, and observing the territory that he was about to conquer, he reputedly said that he felt as if he were in a golden saddle (Altyn Emel means "Golden Saddle"). The park is open to the public from April to the end of October.
A primitive station for the entrance to Aktau Mountains
the 360 degree - just like we were in the middle of nowhere
A simple gate on the track
Aktau and Katutau : The White and Red Mountains, they are divided into the red side and white side. The mountains get their colours from gypsum crystals, their constituent element. Luckily, it was decided not to sell this gigantic deposit gypsum to a quarrying company. Less visited but no less beautiful are the reddish-violet Katutau Mountains (literally "stiffened mountains") 10 km west of Aktau, which are particularly beautiful when observed in the evening light.
A trip here is like a journey into Earth's past. More than 15 million years ago, a gigantic sea stretched on all sides here, and its bizarre, multicoloured deposits are what astonish visitors today. White and red sedimentary layers are predominant, interspersed with beautifully contrasting blue and yellow stripes. The mountains' weathered, conical shapes are reminiscent of pyramids, but luckily this area, 300 km from Almaty, has not been developed for tourism.
It's quite difficult to hike down the sandy slope, luckily I wore hiking boots and covered with long trousers that nearly no sands got into my boots.
沒有留言:
張貼留言