Kazakhstan travel and tourism blog
Kazakhstan features, attractions, places of interest

Aug/19

7

Colorful Landscapes of the Aktau Mountains

The chalk mountains of Aktau (literally “white mountains”), located about 260 km northeast of Almaty, is a unique natural monument that is part of the Altyn Emel National Park.

These multi-colored hills formed from bluish-gray sandstone and red clay, interspersed with yellow and pink cornelian, jasper, and white quartz, look like a layer cake. The height of the geological deposits reaches hundreds of meters. The Aktau Mountains on Google Maps. Photos by: Sergey Terekhov.

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The bizarre shape of gorges, rocks, and canyons turns the Aktau Mountains into labyrinths. From afar, the hills resemble castles, towers, and columns. Such a picturesque relief is the result of weathering and erosion that has occurred over millions of years.

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The Aktau Mountains is one of the largest paleontological deposits in the world. The fossilized remains of ancient plants and animals – giant rhinos, crocodiles and turtles that lived on the territory of present Kazakhstan about 30 million years ago – were found here.

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