Coach trip from Almaty to Turkestan.

“It is untrue that equality is a law of nature. Nature has no equality; its sovereign law is subordination and dependence” 

Luc de Clapiers de Vauvenargues.

Bus and walking tour in Kazakhstan.

Sarytogay valley is located in the floodplain of the Charyn River on the territory of the Charyn Natural Park in the Uygur district in the southeast of the Almaty region. Ash Grove is an amazing and unique world, located in the Sarytogayvalley along the Charyn River.
This is a grove of "Sogdian" ash. The grove stretched along the river for 22 kilometers. Nature has always been the most ingenious creator of living nature. The entire surrounding plant world was created and changed over time.
But there are plants that struggled with the changing conditions of existence, they survived and have come down to our times unchanged. Such unique plants include the Sogdian ash tree, which has retained its appearance unchanged for more than 2 million years since the Pliocene.
The vitality of this species is so great that there are trees that have lived for more than 700 years and are still living. Sogdian ash is a tree about ten meters high, the thickness of the trunks can reach 10 "girths". The bark on the trunks is surprisingly similar to “wrinkles, deep, sinuous, storing the events of past times.
Sogdian ash grows only in one place on earth. These are the canyons of Charyn and Temerlik. Impenetrable due to dense undergrowth, at the same time surprisingly sunny grove. The channels of the overflowing Charyn have broken natural channels stretching under the shady canopy of trees.
An incredible combination of pristine, cosiness and attractiveness of a grove alluring into shady halls. The "landscape map" of the national park has 100 divisions at the level of natural boundaries and terrain types.
The unique ones include the ash grove in the Sarytogay valley, the red and yellow canyons of Charyn, the valley of castles, peculiar badlands formed by the deposits of the Iliyskaya suite, rocky hamads of the lower part of the depression, etc.
Due to the position of the park territory between the Kazakh and Zhongar deserts, as well as due to the influence of the large mountain system of the Northern Tien-Shan and the presence of ecologically contrasting habitats for vegetation, a high degree of biological diversity is observed in the park.
There are seven types of vegetation here: steppe, desert, shrubby, forest, tugai, meadow and marsh. The flora of the Charyn National Park includes more than 940 species of higher plants. More than 60 endemic, sub-endemic and rare species belonging to 20 families and 39 genera, 8 narrow endemic species. 21 species are listed in the Red Book.
Geographical coordinates of vallley Sarytogay: N43°34'40.53" E79°19'05.77"

Authority:
\Alexander Petrov.
http://almatyregion-tour.kz/ru/location/yasenevaya-ash-grove.html

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.