Journey to the Charyn canyon in Kazakhstan

• Journey to the Charyn canyon in Kazakhstan

The mysterious and wonderful place, lost in the steppes. It lured us even during last year's expedition to Kyrgyzstan. Since ancient times, the locals called it the "road to hell", and at night there were flying witches and create other hell.

Naturally, we could not stay here for the night ...

On the morning of a new day, we woke up, had breakfast and went in search of the canyon. Extraordinarily scenic road winding among the massif Boguty.

The trip was very close, and now a hundred kilometers Def stood at the edge of the cliff, and we enjoyed the surrounding views.

Charyn Canyon - a beautiful natural monument, built of sedimentary rocks, whose age is about 12 million years.

The height of the steep mountain canyon reaches 150-300 meters.

He is often compared to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA.

To be honest, we are a very long wanted to see the monument of nature with your own eyes. It is surprising that at the edges it is surrounded by steppe plain almost to the horizon.

And suddenly - suddenly - a deep and powerful fault, the bottom of which winds the road.

It is difficult to imagine how many thousands of years for nature to create the like.

The most interesting place to visit is the Castle Valley, the length of which is about 2 km, width - 20-80 meters. People with pictures I did not clean for the scale.

Bizarre shape of the canyon peaks resemble castles, which attracts tourists from all over the world.

Since the rush we were particularly nowhere, I put the camera in the interval timer shooting ...

... And the wife cooked dinner. The surrounding views only contributed to a good appetite.

Somewhere, far away, stretched Kyrgyzstan, Issyk-Kul Lake, Tien Shan ...

And then suddenly came to the local TV! It turned out that the film crew in two pickup trucks traveling across the country, paying special attention to the mysterious "places of power" like this. Recorded a small story about our team - that's really really pleasant surprise!

After talking with the guys, we decided to go down.

The descent seems simple, but the huntsman passed only four-wheel drive vehicles - passenger cars and then just can not climb up on their own.

Well, let's go! The photograph does not look too bad, but in reality, at this point the brake hard to keep the car.

Below the sculptures are even more enormous and majestic.

Each turn opens up new types.

The road through the canyon.

Wind a good job on the sandstone. Personally, I see here looks out for the dragon stone.

Once upon a time, this piece of rock broke off and fell down. I would not like to be present at such.

The next "sudden" - something too many surprises was that day. Prior to our arrival here walking wedding, the operator with a video camera filmed as the bride and groom are walking between the rocks. But all of the company's attention immediately shifted to Defa, and each felt obliged to shout, in what direction it is necessary to turn the steering wheel!

In the end, he sent his wife to manage the process ...

Def managed to pass by millimeters, even had to fold the mirrors. Judging by the numerous marks on the rocks, not all machines so lucky. Go further.

We pass through the "Gorge of witches." Rock away like a bird.

The road is getting narrower.

And here it is, happiness - after a hot day a dip in the cool waters of the river Charyn noisy!

Charyn - one of the most full-flowing rivers of the Northern Tien Shan. Its length is 393 km. Originates on the southern slope of the ridge Ketmen, in the lower reaches is divided into sleeves. mountain-river, begins above the snow line.

In the bosom of the canyon is preserved grove of relict species of ash, survived the Ice Age - Sogdian ash. Another similar grove is only in North America.

The sun was sinking more and more on the horizon.

I, meanwhile, decided to take a walk, keeping an eye point for night shooting.

A stone staircase to the top of the mountain.

We met again near the river with a film crew. Covered the general table, cooked dinner, they treated us very delicious strawberries and told many stories ...

Almost all the canyons and gorges are covered with mysteries. Many tales and walks around Charyn: people perceived the fault of the Earth as the gateway to the subsoil, where live many spirits, which is not desirable to disturb the ordinary mortal.

Therefore, by studying the canyons, archaeologists rarely find traces of ancient people. But inside the canyon in abundance scientists found animal bones. When you walk along the bottom, it seems that going over the bones - a lot of them, and this is really getting scary ...

One of the most mysterious gorges of the canyon is called - Witch. According to legend, the witches chase stragglers dawn tourists on stone pillars, and throw them into the abyss. Naive, but, nevertheless, by the campfire at night, even the most skeptical person experiences an involuntary fear.

The wind in this area makes a truly mystical sounds. The causes of the terrible howls scientifically substantiated: the fact that the local rocks, consisting of sedimentary rocks have a lot of small holes, in fact it is - a huge natural "wind instrument".

There is another magical part of the canyon, which is called the "Dead Charyn". It is said that in this valley a few years ago have disappeared, four young boys.

In the local villages, people talk about the unusual cases that happen in the canyon and on the road in two places passing very close to the precipice. Getting to this part of the canyon, people disappear without a trace.

Frankly, after hearing all these stories run in the dark here and there with the cameras it was pretty scary. It seemed that someone is watching you, hiding behind rocks and sometimes absolute silence among the next suddenly heard footsteps but fell on the slopes of small stones.

However, the night was over-year short and soon above the gorge of the newly risen sun. Sleep in the morning we went only with the first rays of his ...