Mangystau has an amazing quality a sort of magnetism that attracts human souls and hearts. Having once visited this land, breathed in the dry and salty air and plunged in the cold shoreline wave, you will never forget all this.
Those who want to discover a severe beauty and amazing generosity of the region will be offered the following program:
Duration: 8 days
Length: 1000 km
Accommodation: 1 night in a guest house, and 7 days in tents.
Difficulty category: АA
Seasonality: late May to mid-June; September.
Price for a group is USD 892 including insurance – USD 1 a day per person.
The service includes a guide, accidence insurance, execution of necessary route documents, parking lots for 8 and 9 days on the route, and Aktau tour.
Additional payment: meal, hotel, museum tickets.
Day 1. Departure from Aktau to Blue Bay (65 km asphalt, 20 km steppe road). Rest on the sea and fishing. Undersea hunting is possible provided you have your own equipment. Field meal. Overnight stop in tents.
Day 2. Field breakfast. Travel from the Blue Bay to the Shevchenko Fort. Visit the museum consisting of section devoted to ethnography, local narrator Muryn and the Ukrainian poet and artist Shevchnko’s being in Mangyshlak. Restaurant lunch (13.00-14.00). Travel from Shevchenko Fort to Zhygylgan. Visit the grandiose geologic collapse on the sea floor and to see Neogene fossilized animal traces (hoofed and saber-toothed cats, 15 million years ago). See the Tubejik 1 archeological monument. The total length of the pedestrian route is 3 km including the plateau ascent and descent (H-100m). Travel from Zhygylgan to Sultan Epe Canyon. Visit the clan cemeteries of Karagashty Aulie and Ushtam (16-19 centuries). The Saint Sultan Epe’s grave and underground mosque are located at the edge of the Canyon. Overnight stop in tents.
Day 3. Field breakfast. Travel from Sultan Epe to Shakpak Ata’s underground mosque. See the Cretaceous Kapamsai Canyon with Stone Age workshops (3 km tracking). A field lunch (13.00-14.00). Shakpak Ata’s underground mosque is cut out in the cliff. There are drawings and epigraphies (10-13 centuries). Travel from Shakpak Ata to Torysh. The route will cross the big Cretaceous Shakpakatasai Canyon and visit a panoramic site of the huge field of globular concretions – amazing geological formations up to 2.5 m in diameter. Field dinner. Overnight stop in tents.
Day 4. Breakfast. Travel from Torysh to Sherkala Mountain with Kokala bizarre washouts of speckled shales. The Sherkala Mountain is a unique natural object looking like a gigantic yurt from one the seeing perspectives (H-300 m). The walking tour around the mountain (3 km) and ascent (15 m with climbing outfit, optional). A field lunch (13.00 – 14.00). Travel from Sherkala to the Akmyshtau. Seeing the residuals of the Middle Age town Kyzylkala (10-13 century) and nomads’ rock drawings. The route passes the picturesque cross country along the Cretaceous terraces of the Airakty and Kairakty Mountains. Field dinner. Overnight stop in tents.
Day 5. Field breakfast. The Tomalak Mountain peak ascent by a mountain path (Н - 200 m) that opens a fantastic panoramic view (the total length of the route is 4 km). Travel from Akmyshtau to Zharmysh. Lunch in a café in Shetpe (13.00-14.00). Stroll the East Karatau Ridge Gorge with cool mountain water (total route length is 3 km). Field dinner. Overnight stop in tents.
Day 6. Field Breakfast. Travel from Zharmysh to Sauskan sand (80 km, steppe road, asphalt). The route crosses the East Karatau Ridge. The Sauskan Sand is a large massif of blown out sand barkhans. The barkhans are 15 m high. Sand stroll. A field lunch (13.00 – 14.00). Travel from Sauskan to Shopan Ata’s underground mosque. Saint Shopan Ata’s grave and mosque (10 – 11 centuries) where he was buried is one of the obligatory pilgrimage sites. Ulkenkuduk archeological site is nearby (2,000 years B.C.). Dinner (ethnic cuisine). Overnight stop in a hospitable house.
Day 7. Breakfast. Travel Shopan Ata to the Bokty Mountain. The route passes the Tyesu Mountain, Ajyrekty Oi Gorge to the Bokty Mountain (H-165 m). A field lunch (13.00-14.00). Travel to the Usturt Plateau chinks in Bas Jyar. Bas Zhyar is a picturesque precipice of the Usturt Plateau surrounded with Cretaceous mountains and residual spires. The Chink is up to 280m high. The floor of the large dry salty Karashek Lake adjoins to the precipice from south-east. There are outcrops of globular concretions and fossilized sea fauna. Ascent to one of the peaks (5 km tracking) before dinner that opens on a magnificent panorama. Field dinner Overnight stop in tents.
Day 8. Breakfast. Travel from Bas Zhyar to Zhana Ozen to Aktau (280 km, country road, asphalt). The back route goes along the Akkurpa stone columns gallery, under the Baissary Tract, on the Kamysty Sor floor and passes the Tynymbai Mountain (H-227 m). Lunch in a restaurant in Zhana Ozen. Return to Aktau through the third deepest depression of Karagya..
Hotel accommodation. Dinner in the hotel. Parking lot.
Day 9. Hotel Breakfast. Aktau overview tour. Rest and preparation to the departure. Departure

For more information please contact:
Firma Tourist LLP
Republic of Kazakhstan, 130000 Aktau, Micro Raion 9, House 4, Office 110
Tel:. (3292) 43-00-00, 51-19-29, 43 55 20 fax: 31 01 71
e-mail: pbatalov@nursat.kz