Nature sights of Central Kazakhstan.

“Nature encourages no looseness, pardons no errors”

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Tours Bektau ata mountains.

The Bektau ata mountains are located at an altitude of 600 to 1214 meters above sea level, located 71 kilometers from the north-western part of Lake Balkhash and the city of Balkhash, east of the Tabakenttatyr (Kentarlau) valley in the Aktogay district of the Karaganda region.
In fact Bektau ata is an un-erupted volcano, or Pluton, to use the geological term. This is a meeting place of two different landscapes – granite mountain is surrounded by a flat steppe. The mountain rises above the steppe more than a thousand meters.
Pink granite rocks of Bektau ata consist of granite lava solidified on the surface and in the cracks of the earth. Dozens of dikes (cracks where volcanic lava hardened) penetrate mountainous ma'ssif. Many millennium of weathering has destroyed the granite and created a real work of art – Wonderful cliffs which people have given whimsical names such as “Mushroom”, “Trunk”, “Turtle”, “Three teeth (peak) mountain” and many others.
In deserts of Northern Pribalkhashie the most southern massifis Bektau ata (up to 1214 m), which like granite island, towers over surrounding plain. One of the natural attractions of the region is the mountain chain Bectau ata – beautiful place of Northern Balkhash.
The top of the peak Bektau ata soars up to 1000 meters. In clear weather, the visibility of the picturesque landscape stretches for 100 km. Mountain Range Bektau ata is not as extended (4000 ha), but it is decorated with a variety of cliffs and canyons.
In the tract Bektau ata grow hundreds of plants, of which 45 are rare, and 8 are in the Red Book. Mountainside Bektau ata formed cave "Auliye" with fresh water, which is considered holy, and the water is healing. 
When you get to these mountains you can see sudden change of landscape: sad deserted spaces are replaced by emerald colours of motley grass and abundance of bushes growing along springs and small rivers.
Here and there freakish granite rocks are spread, in some places it is possible to meet tangle of juniper. It is another world - picturesque oasis among Pribalkhashie deserts.
Geographic coordinates of the Bektauata mountain range: N47 ° 27'04.09 "E74 ° 46'33.43"

Authority:
“Central Asia Mountains”. 2009, Almaty,Publishing house “Mektep”. Authos Aldar Gorbunov, Anna Ivachenko, Sharipa Bisarieva. www.wanaway.kz

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.