Sharyn river descends from the Tien Shan mountains and flows for almost 400 kilometers. Of this, a stretch of about 50 kilometers cuts through sedimentary rock. This is one of the main tourist attractions outside Almaty. I’d started with the thought of taking a couple of days’ tour through the area, with a night’s glamping or two thrown in. But The Family developed a back problem before we left, and I dropped the idea altogether. After three days in and around Almaty, The Family declared that her back was fit for a long day’s drive. So we decided to visit the part of the Charyn canyon which is called the Valley of Castles.
As we approached the canyon the flat steppes turned into a rolling landscape covered with the thin vegetation of arid parts of the world: some grass, some low herbs. I learnt later that this is a 80 meter thick layer of sandy soil laid down by the action of rivers and wind during the Cenozoic era. Most of this soil has been laid down in the time after the collision of the Indian and Asian plates, and the raising of the high barrier of Tibet which prevented the Asian monsoon from reaching this part of the world.
The Sharyn river has dug through this mud and then cut through the Paleozoic rocks below, exposing the previous geology of the region. i could see a thin lighter coloured layer of rock between the soil and the red rocks below. Over centuries, the water has carved the wonderful shapes that you see here. The day had been overcast. Weather seemed to be complicated here. The region lies between the tropical and mid-latitude circulations of the atmosphere, and weather is determined by the interactions of these two stable circulations with the Atlantic westerlies.
It never rained, but the light did not improve till sunset, so we never saw the blazing colours that the canyon is famous for. We trudged back to the tourist center for a tea and cake at the cafe. Then it was time to locate our car and drive for two hundred kilometers back to Almaty. It’s this long drive that makes it worthwhile to see the canyon as part of a longer trip from Almaty. After all there are a lot of sights in this part of Kazakhstan, and you can get in pretty long walks.
Don't hold your breath 