Charyn Canyon private sightseeing guided tour

Tour distance by car: 440 km

 

On the picture you can see the Red Canyon (place name) or the Valley of Castles. It is the most unique object of nature where under the influence of thousand-year processes of aeration of sedimentary rocks the original forms of a relief took shapes of the isolated rocks, columns and towers. Experts call the destructive power of the wind, water and gravitation as an architect of this masterpiece. The word "canyon" comes from Spanish "cañón" that means "pipe" or "gun". The canyon is formed in dry plateaus where the river strongly deeps its bottom. Strictly speaking, the Valley of Castles is a dry gorge washed out by thawed snow and settling down perpendicularly to the Charyn River, punched for itself a way through the soft mountains and unapproachable stone rocks.
 

The length of the Red Canyon is about 3 km, width from 20 up to 130 m, depth up to 100 m. It involuntarily this creation of nature can be compared with "The Grand Canyon" on the Colorado River in the USA. Landscapes have external similarity, but the canyon in the Northern America has length of 800 km, at depth from 1200 up to 1800 m.
 

Philologists interpret a word Charyn differently. In Turkic language shar or zhar mean a precipice. And, really, here precipices are everywhere. Some people try to explain the meaning based on the Uigur word sharyn which means "ash" as the well-known ashen grove is located on the banks of the river.
 

Ways to novel areas of Central Asia attracted here the well-known Russian travelers such as Severtsev, Krasnov and Valikhanov. Certainly, they were attracted here by this crack in the steppes as some kind of the lost world which is impossible just to pass by.

NOTES:
 

1) Please, check availability and tour price before booking.

2) We arrange our tours in different languages and for a different number of people. For a free accurate quote, please call or email us. We will reply you shortly.