Flower Tours in Altyn-Emel park.

“Nature is conquered only by obeying its laws”

F. Bacon.

Ecological tours to the Altyn-Emel park.

While stretching along the Ili River basin and covering territory of more than 1.2 million acres on the south of Kazakhstan, Altyn Emel National Park is considered one of the largest in the country. The name of the park means “the golden saddle” in Kazakh, and this is no coincidence.
In fact, the pass of the same name located here looks like a saddle, while sunlight pouring through its hills paint it gold. Launched in 1996, Altyn Emel has diverse flora with about 650 species, including Allium galanthum, an Asian species of onion, as well as desert poplar, silverberry, granny’s bonnet and Prunus cerasus or sour cherry.
One of the most popular inhabitants of the park is a centuries-old elm tree, whose trunk is extremely wide and can be enfolded only by eight people. The park’s fauna includes about 400 species, including more than 100 migrating birds.
There you can see the Siberian mountain goat, gazelle, mountain sheep and brown bear of Tien-Shan, as well as mysterious Turkmen onager, which are among the fastest mammals, as they can run as fast as 64 kilometers per hour.
Visitors to Altyn Emel can enjoy unique natural sites; the most popular are the Singing Barchans or whistling sand. With a length of about 1.5 km long and a height of 120 meters, this natural object can sound like an organ, thanks to the blowing wind.
Today the State National Natural Park Altyn-Emel is one of the largest in the republic, its area is over 520 thousand hectares, of which the property of the park is 161153 hectares. The name “Altyn-Emel” has Mongolian roots and in translation sounds like “Golden Saddle”.
This is clearly evidenced by a folk legend: in 1219, the troops of Genghis Khan moved through this valley to conquer Central Asia. Seeing at sunset the mountains covered with yellowed grass, the great commander exclaimed:
"Golden saddle!" As you know, in the past, nomads based their associations on their first geographical maps. Apparently, since then these mountains began to be called “Altyn-Emel”.
The State National Natural Park is called the pride of the south of the Dzungarian Alatau.
The State National Natural Park Altyn-Emel was created by Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 416 dated 04/10/1996, the total area is about 520 thousand ha. Own area of ​​161153 hectares. National nature park “Altyn-Emel” is located in the Ili depression, from the north it is limited by the southern spurs of the Dzungarian Alatau, from the south by the Ili River and the Kapchagai reservoir. Altyn-Emel National Nature Park has the status of an environmental and scientific institution of republican significance, reports to the Committee for Forestry and Animal Peace, and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The state national natural park "Altyn-Emel" is located in the Kerbulak and Panfilov districts of the Almaty region. The central estate of the park is located in the village of Basshi, 250 km from Almaty and 80 km from the district center of Saryozek, from the village of Baschi to Taldykurgan 190 km.
The main objectives of the national park are:
Preservation of natural complexes,
biodiversity,
unique and reference natural sites,
objects of the natural and reserve fund,
natural and historical-cultural heritage.
Development of scientific methods for the conservation of biological diversity, monitoring of ecological systems and natural objects according to the Nature Chronicle Program; Environmental education and the development of ecological tourism.
Currently, there are 12 tourist routes.

Authority:
Part of the material about Besshatyr barrows, Taigak gorge, Singing dune, Kattu-Tau mountains was taken from the 1996 book “The Commandments of the Singing Dune”. The author, professor of zoology P.I. Marikovsky. Part of the information on the mounds was taken from a billboard located at the largest mound Besshatyr.

Photos
Alexander Petrov, Alexander Ezhov.