Singing Dune 17 April 2019

We then got back to the guest house for lunch.  The bread (fried buns) tastes like our deep-fried couple (油炸鬼).  I liked the taste of Piala tea (Oolong tea) and would bring some back to HK.

 

A frightening dark cloud over us

A station for entering the Singing Dune, with just a registration desk

Finally Singing Dune is in sight

Altyn Emel National Park's best-known tourist attraction is a dune - 180 m high, more than 3 km long and made up of the finest yellow desert sand- right in the middle of the steppe.  It is called the Singing Dune (poyushchiy barchan) because, when traversing the crest, you can hear a humming or droning sound like an aircraft starting  up or the playing of a monotone organ.  This is the result of innumerable sand grains vibrating as they move together.  The dune never moves, a phenomenon caused by the meeting of different winds of equal strength from several directions, which constantly deposit sand here from distant desert areas.

The dune is reachable on a single, marked route about 50 km from Basshi.  The climb up the dune is best managed from the northern side.  There is a fantastic view of the steppe, the colourful Ulken Kaalkan Mountains, the Ile Plain and the dune itself,  You can hear the sand sing when the ground is dry and the wind blows from the west.  (the "singing" as captured - https://alitraveling.blog.hu/2017/10/05/altyn-emel_national_park)

It was hard to walk up the sandy slope as for each step it slid down a bit and your foot buried into the sands.  A few steps could make you breathless.  Vlad walked effortless at front.

  

The sky brightened and turned into blue

Another dune is being formed

We crawled up slowly

Finally I climbed to the ridge top (it took me half an hour or more) and Ile Plain came to sight

After loads of pictures and selfies, we got down

Vlad taught us some Kazakh words during a short drive before we reaching the 3 big stones - Oshaktas Stelan. The origin and purpose of this stone construction is unclear.  Some legends say that they were part of the camp of Genghis Khan when he passed through this area in 1219 (allegedly affirmed by an inscription found here). Another hypothesis was that the stones were used to ignite signal fires.

Thanks for the nice weather.  We got back to the guesthouse for a short rest and found the sky painted with golden shades.