Asia

[Visited: October 2023, November 2023]

After the beauty of the Tuzbair salt flat, we continue driving further south. The landscape around us is always dry, always desert, and at times pretty plain. We make a brief stop at the Beket Ata underground mosque, where we walk down a trail on steep cliffs with sweeping views over the plain below. We would have loved to stay a little longer, but our driver insists that we need to move on, as we have lost time searching for the salt flat that morning. After a while, we get off, and walk to the edge of the plain. Below our feet, a magnificent landscape unfolds. We see a string of rock pillars sticking up in the air, and in the distance, the water of a lake shimmering in the afternoon sun. We have arrived at the famous Bozhira (or Boszhira) region. We could have spent more time here, too, but the driver insists we continue. We drive around the edge of the cliffs, until we reach a dirt track leading down into the plain below.
We are now driving in a new reality, and instead of looking down at the landscape below us, we are looking up at the mountains rising from the plain. We now understand why our driver has been pushing these last hours: we have arrived at the most spectacular part of our exploration of Mangystau. We see the same rock pillars, but now, they are rising high above us, dwarfing us when we stand at their feet. We now feel in awe at the beauty of this landscape. This beauty is further strengthened by the warm light that the setting sun is spreading over our rocky surroundings. We want to climb up one of the slopes to get closer to the pillars above, but our driver urges us to continue driving for a little bit. We arrive at the same string of towers we have seen before from above. We get out, and watch as the rocky wall turns from brown, to yellow, orange - almost getting on fire before it diminishes, the warm colours fade and turn to grey. It is time to drive to our camping spot and pitch our tent.
The night was cold, and when we wake up, we see the sun appear behind the jagged mountains of Bozhira. After a quick breakfast, we are on our way again, and stop at the slope we wanted to climb the day before. The sun has already warmed up the air, and when I climb the steep slope, sweat is dripping from my head and down my spine. I get close to the feet of the rocky towers, and have great views up their solid walls. From here, we seem to drive away, into a different valley, up a slope. When we can drive no more, we walk, and arrive at the plateau of one of the mountains we have seen from below. We see the same pillars again, from above: we even see our camping spot. It turns out we could have walked up, and we will never understand why we didn't do that - we didn't even know it was possible. We walk to the very end, soak in the spectacular views of this prehistoric landscape of constant erosion, until it is time to go.

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Bozhira landscapes > Kazakhstan > Asia

[Visited: October 2023, November 2023]

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