Reserves and parks of Kazakhstan

• Aksu-Zhabagly national reserve
• Altyn Emel national park
  • Singing Dune
  • Kattu-Tau and White mountains
  • Vegetative and fauna of park the Altyn-Emel
• Bayanaul nature park
• Barsakelmes nature park
• Borovoe national park
• Kokshetau national park
• Katon-Karagay nature park
• Korgalzhin nature reserve
• Markakol nature reserve
• Naurzum nature reserve
• Ustyurt reserve

Altyn Emel National Park

The Altyn Emel National Park, founded in 1996 a nd covering 5,200 square kilometres, stretches along the northeastern side of the Кар shagay Reservoir and the north bank of the lie River before it flows into the reservoir. It is said that in 1219 Genghis Khan and his army passed through here. Standing on the pass of the last mountain ridge before entering the lie Plain, and observing the territory that he was about to conquer, he reputedly said that he felt as if he were in a golden saddle (Altyn Emel actually means "Golden Saddle").
Today this terrain is the habitat of kulan dzheyran (steppe, or goitred gazelle), arkhar, lammergeier, short-toed eagle and black stork – to name just a few of the 260 species that survive here. In theory the park is strictly protected, but unfortunately it is freely used by state authorities for hunting and therefore the survival of several species is in question.
Only kulan numbers have greatly increased in the last 20 years, but the reintroduction into the wild of the Przewalski's horse is also proving successful.
The park is open to to the public from April to the end of October. An ordinary car is not practical - a good jeep is recommended. The park 's severe continental climate only 100 kilometres north of mild Almaty can lead to bouts of intensely cold weather. However, in july you must be prepared for temperatures of 40 - 50 С and little shade. For this reason, and for the multitude of mosquitoes near the water, long-sleeved clothing is highly recommended.
To get to the park, leave Almaty on the Taldykorgan highway over the Archarly Pass to the settlement of Saryosek ( 190 kilometers), then travel another 80 kilometers on the road to Zharkent, over the picturesque Altyn Emel Pass to Basshy.
A village on the right side of the highway about 10 kilometres beyond the pass. The national park administration is located here, and there is also a small hotel in a nearby building. A visit to the park should be planned well in advance. The park administration has an office in Almaty in Hotel Zhetisu, and this is the place to sort out all the formalities.
A stay costs 5,800 tenge (US$38) per person, and the limited amount of overnight accommodation should also be reserved in advance. The management of the national park provides a knowledgeable guide, who takes visitors through the extensive territory, ensuring they get to the current locations of the park's free-roaming animals.

Besshatyr burial mounds

After а short track, о n е can see to one's left а number o f grave mounds (kurgany) dating from around 500 BC. If оnе ventures into the side valleys, оnе can spot а large number of rock carvings, part of which are even older. Yet another 14 kilometer down the road, оnе turns left and drives just over four kilometer further till о n е comes to а collection of tomb stones with varying diameters.
These thirty-one mounds of Besshatyr (Five Tents) were erected by the Sak between the 6 th and the 3 rd Century BC in the honor of their lords, captains and warriors whom they buried there.
The Beshshatyr Kurgany аге but о n е of the finds of more than а thousand of such mounds in all in Semirechye. Nowhere anywhere in Eurasia there is such а large amount of Scythian grave mounds as over here.
Of the kurgany, 21 аге covered with stones, whereas the other ten аге covered with pebbles and earth. The biggest kurgany, dedicated to lords and captains, аге between 45 and 105 meter large with heights of up to 17 meter . The construction of each of the largest graves took 50 000 cubic meter of earth, stones and pebbles.
The walls and ceilings of the four-meter high tomb chambers consist of trunks of Tien Shan fir trees; this wood as survived at least 2000 years. It is thought that under the hills there used to be catacombs and labyrinths from where а tunnel would lead to the tomb chambers.
The mid-size kurgany, in which noblemen and officers were buried, аге 25 to 38 meter large and five to six meter high. The small mounds, graves to the brave plain foot soldiers, are six to eighteen meter large and one to two meter high. То their northwestern side, the mounds are surrounded by а half-circle of 45 man-high, upright standing stones.
They are carved with images of animals, hunting scenes and figures. The orderly range in which these stones, named miring, have been put is far fгom coincidental according to ethnologists. Each Sak tribe (ulus) put up оnе stone as а token of honor to the lord that was buried here. Each year, representative of all the ulus would gather here, and light а ritual bonfire next to the stones. Very old traces of fire оп the stones tend to confirm this assumption.
The kurgany were excavated between 1957 and 1961. In the tomb chambers of lords and captains human bones, ceramics, horse skeletons, felt- and reed mats, iron daggers and bronze arrow points were found.

The guidebook across Kazakhstan. Authors Dagmar Schreiber and Jeremy Tredinnick.
Publishing house "Odyssey".2010. The information from this book is given by author Dagmar Schreiber.