Charyn Canyon on charyn.kz

Bestamak, Temirlik and Kurtu: the canyons without crowds

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Charyn is not one canyon but a system. The Valley of Castles is the famous part, but it accounts for three kilometres out of 154 kilometres of total length. In short: the largest of the quiet canyons is Temirlik (11 km, up to 160 m deep, about 240 km from Almaty), and the park now has a “Temirlik — the Small Canyon” route; Kurtogay lies by the bridge over the Charyn; for Bestamak and Kurtu there is almost no reliable data.

Burial mounds and kurgans: the park's archaeological trail

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

“Burial grounds and kurgans” is the archaeological route of Charyn park, alongside the Valley of Castles and the ash grove. It can be walked or driven. According to English Wikipedia, it is an area of scattered archaeological sites about 12 km off the Chundzha–Almaty highway. Nearby, in the Sarytogay tract, lies a burial ground that the state list of monuments dates to between the 1st–2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE.

Charyn Canyon rules: what is allowed and what is not

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Short version for a weekend trip: tents only in designated spots, fires and barbecues only in equipped ones, no swimming, no driving off roads and trails, keep your payment receipt to the end. Photography is allowed; picking berries and mushrooms for yourself is too.

Not verified yet The edition of the rules available to us dates from 2019. We are requesting the current 2026 wording; such documents rarely change in substance, but we state the date honestly.

What is allowed

What	Condition
Vehicle movement	only on public roads and designated excursion roads
Organised tours and hikes	by prior arrangement with the administration
Movement on water	non-motorised craft only, by arrangement
Amateur fishing	permitted
Picking berries, mushrooms, herbs	for personal use, in permitted areas
Photography and filming	amateur and professional
Educational fieldwork	permitted
Herbarium and soil sampling	for study, except in the strict reserve zone

What is prohibited

Transport and parking

Charyn Canyon vs the world's canyons: depth and length compared

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Charyn Canyon is 154 km long and 150–300 m deep according to reference sources, up to 370 m at some points per park materials. Below are the same two measures for eight canyons around the world. Charyn’s depth is always shown as a range: a single number would be more precise than any measurement we can cite.

Data and sources

Canyon	Depth, m	Length, km	Depth vs Charyn	Source
Charyn CanyonKazakhstan	150–300up to 370 in places	154	range in reference sources	charyn.kz
Grand CanyonUSA	1,600average	447	5–11× deeper than Charyn	NPS
Fish River CanyonNamibia	550	160	1.8–3.7× deeper than Charyn	Wikipedia
Colca CanyonPeru	3,270	70	11–22× deeper than Charyn	Wikipedia
Verdon GorgeFrance	700	25	2.3–4.7× deeper than Charyn	Wikipedia
Tara River CanyonMontenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina	1,333	82	4.4–8.9× deeper than Charyn	Wikipedia
Sulak CanyonRussia, Dagestan	1,920	53	6–13× deeper than Charyn	Wikipedia
Antelope CanyonUSA	37	0.41	4.1–8.1× shallower than Charynslot canyon	Wikipedia
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand CanyonChina, Tibet	6,009average 2,268	504.6	20–40× deeper than Charyn	Wikipedia

Eight canyons of the world

Charyn Canyon Kazakhstan depth 150–300 m · length 154 km
Grand Canyon USA depth 1,600 m (average) · length 447 km 5–11× deeper than Charyn
Fish River Canyon Namibia depth 550 m · length 160 km 1.8–3.7× deeper than Charyn
Colca Canyon Peru depth 3,270 m · length 70 km 11–22× deeper than Charyn
Verdon Gorge France depth 700 m · length 25 km 2.3–4.7× deeper than Charyn
Tara River Canyon Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina depth 1,333 m · length 82 km 4.4–8.9× deeper than Charyn
Sulak Canyon Russia, Dagestan depth 1,920 m · length 53 km 6–13× deeper than Charyn
Antelope Canyon USA depth 37 m · length 0.41 km 4.1–8.1× shallower than Charyn
Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon China, Tibet depth 6,009 m · length 504.6 km 20–40× deeper than Charyn

Illustrations Engravings in the style of a 19th-century atlas, not photographs of these places. Figures come from the table above.

Why comparisons differ

Depth varies along a canyon. For the Grand Canyon the US National Park Service publishes only an average depth of about 1.6 km, labelled as such. We do not invent a maximum.
A slot canyon is a different type. Antelope Canyon is tens of metres deep but in places one step wide: its effect is narrowness, not scale.
Canyon length is not river length. The river runs above and below the gorge; the table gives the canyon’s own length from the source.

What it means for a visit

The Grand Canyon recorded 4,430,653 visits in 2025, per NPS statistics. Charyn is 195 km from Almaty and can be seen in a day: getting there. How deep the canyon is next to familiar buildings is on the scale page.

Charyn Canyon with children: what to plan for

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

There are no formal age restrictions in the visiting rules. The constraints are physical, and worth understanding before you set off. In short: come in April–May or September–October, get onto the trail in the morning, carry more water than seems sensible and keep well away from the cliff edges. Children under 7 enter free; school-age children pay half.

Cost

Who	Tariff
Adults	0.2 MCI per person per day
Children under 7	free
School-age from 7	50% of the tariff
Full-time students	25% off
People with disabilities	no charge
Passenger car	0.7 MCI per entry

The 0.2 MCI tariff and the car fee are set by appendix 14 of Order No. 232; the discount categories come from a 2017 order whose 2026 status we are still checking. The national park fee calculator gives the current-year amount: the MCI changes every January.

Charyn in a day, or staying overnight

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A day trip works. About 195 km each way — 3–4 hours behind the wheel, by Kazakh Tourism’s estimate — the Valley of Castles takes a few hours on foot, and most visitors fit it into one day. Entry for two people in a car comes to 1.1 MCI. Stay overnight if you want the good light, the ash grove, or simply not to spend half the day rushing.

The question is what you give up.

Charyn in winter: the season nobody plans for

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Winter is the most overlooked season at Charyn, for a straightforward visual reason. The short version: the canyon is open year-round, January averages around −10 °C, you get about nine hours of daylight, and the drive from Almaty takes 3–4 hours each way, with the last 10 km or so unpaved. It suits people who have already seen the canyon in summer, and photographers.

Illustration Engraving: canyon under snow, red rock exposed on the steep walls

How it looks

Snow settles on everything horizontal: the plateau above, the ledges, the terraces, the flat tops of the pillars. The sheer walls stay red — snow simply does not hold on them.

Charyn without a car: what actually works

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Getting there without your own car is possible, but noticeably harder than the map suggests.

The general approach

Scheduled transport to the nearest settlements on the Narynkol road, then a lift, a local taxi or a pre-arranged transfer.

The nearest settlement with infrastructure is Shonzhy, 7 kilometres from the park boundary.

The difficulty is the final leg: about 10 kilometres of unpaved track from the highway to the checkpoint, with no public transport.

Getting to Charyn Canyon from Almaty

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Short version: from Almaty head east on the Almaty — Narynkol road for roughly 195 km, take the signposted turn for Charyn Canyon, continue 16 km, then leave the asphalt for about 10 km of unpaved track to the checkpoint.

Illustration Access route: city, road east, the fork, and the unpaved final stretch to the checkpoint

The route step by step

Leg	Distance	What matters
Almaty → the fork	—	heading east
Chundzha / Narynkol fork	—	keep towards Narynkol
Fork → turn for the canyon	—	look for the Charyn Canyon sign
Turn → end of asphalt	16 km	paved
End of asphalt → checkpoint	10 km	unpaved track
Almaty → canyon, total	~195 km

The point where people go wrong is the Chundzha / Narynkol fork. Both directions head towards the canyon on a map, but the signposted turn is on the Narynkol road.

How Charyn Canyon was formed

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The canyon is built of red sedimentary sandstone. The gorge took its present form about a million years ago; the rock itself is considerably older — Russian Wikipedia puts it at about 12 million years. The shape comes from two forces: a river that cut down into the sequence, and weathering that strips the walls back layer by layer.

How old is it? Why the numbers differ

You will find at least three different “ages” for Charyn, and they do not contradict each other, because they answer different questions.

How deep is Charyn Canyon? Compared with Baiterek, the Eiffel Tower and Burj Khalifa

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Data and sources

Structure	Height, m	Year	Against a 150–300 m wall
Statue of Libertyground to torch, with pedestal	93	1886	the wall is 1.6–3.2× taller
Baiterekwith spire; observation deck at 97 m	105	2002	the wall is 1.4–2.9× taller
Khan Shatyrwith spire; the tent itself is 90 m	150	2010	the wall is 1–2× taller
Eiffel Towerto the tip	330	1889	1.1–2.2× taller than the wall
Almaty TV Toweron Kok-Tobe hill	371.5	1983	1.2–2.5× taller than the wall
Burj Khalifaarchitectural height	828	2010	2.8–5.5× taller than the wall

The closest match is Almaty TV Tower

It stands 371.5 m tall — almost exactly Charyn’s maximum depth of 370 m per park materials. At its deepest the canyon wall is as tall as the tower on Kok-Tobe; at the 300 m upper bound of the reference range almost three Baitereks stacked on top of each other would fit.

Near Charyn: building a two- or three-day route

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A day trip to Charyn from Almaty works, but the eastern road is arranged so that the same three and a half hours of driving can cover considerably more.

Three places on one road

Illustration Engraving: a narrow mountain lake in a spruce-forested valley beneath snowy ridges

Charyn Canyon — 195 km from Almaty. Entry 865 ₸ per person, 3,027.5 ₸ per car.

Photographing Charyn: light, timing, gear

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Charyn is one of the most photographed places in Kazakhstan and one of the most poorly photographed. The reason is simple and nearly always the same: people arrive at midday. The short answer for a shoot: work the first and last hour of daylight, from the rim at the top of the descent and on the floor of the Valley of Castles; October is the strongest month; amateur photography is free, professional filming has its own tariff in MCI, and drones fall under Kazakhstan’s general aviation rules.

Sarytogay ash grove: a relict forest from the Paleogene

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Sarytogay tract covers 5,014 hectares, of which roughly 1,100 hectares are pure stands of Sogdian ash. The grove was declared a natural monument on 19 March 1964.

It is the part of the park most often skipped by visitors who come for a single day.

Illustration Engraving: ash grove in autumn gold along the river floodplain

What Sogdian ash is

A relict of the Paleogene — the tree survived the glaciations and remains here in its natural state. Ash communities make up roughly 35% of the forested area of the tract.

Valley of Castles: the main part of Charyn Canyon

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Valley of Castles is what people come for. The tract runs three kilometres long and 200 to 700 metres wide, at roughly 1,300 metres above sea level, on a fault in the earth’s crust. It lies about 195 km east of Almaty, with the last 10 km or so on an unpaved road, and the most comfortable months are April–May and September–October.

Illustration Weathering landforms: sandstone pillars and turrets sharing continuous bedding

The Valley of Castles in numbers

Sources disagree on the size of the tract, and it helps to know that before you notice different figures in different guidebooks.

What entry to Charyn Canyon actually costs

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Short answer: 865 tenge per person per day and 3,027.5 tenge per car entry. The order lists these as two separate lines: a car pays once per entry, people pay for every day. Work out your own combination of people, days and transport in the calculator. How checkpoints apply the per-person line to car passengers is something we have not verified on site.

Beyond that come the nuances that produce at least three other figures in search results. No source we know of explains them, so here they are.

Wildlife of Charyn: what actually lives here

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The park is unusually rich for a semi-desert region.

Group	Species
Mammals	32
Reptiles	18
Amphibians	4
Birds	over 100
Vascular plants	about 1,000
Rare and endemic plants	over 50
Species in Kazakhstan’s Red Book	27

Mammals

At the Kyzylkarasai site, goitered gazelles calve — it is a habitat and calving ground for a species listed in Kazakhstan’s Red Book.

Illustration Zoological illustration: goitered gazelle standing in profile on steppe ground

Siberian ibex hold the rocky sections.