The “fiery fortress” at Yangykala canyon was carved out of limestone 5,5 million years ago by the disappearing Tethys sea. At one point, the Amu Darya ran its course right into the Caspian Sea, and over time, it created some magnificent landscapes on the way.
Letting your imagination work on the surrealist shapes in the shadows of the desert moonlight makes for a memorable night out in Turkmenistan.
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Visiting Yangykala
The attraction of Yangykala canyon is the sudden appearance of soaring cliffs in layers of white, green, pink, red and even green in a desolate setting. The colours are sublime and the whole area definitely delivers a wow-effect as you first come upon it. You have probably never seen anything like it.
The main downside in visiting Yangykala is the road. It’s bumpy at first, and peters out into a track of loose sand near the end. It takes 4 hours to get there, and then 4 hours back. Although the road through the desert is already of great beauty and interest, it is not fun to do it all in one day.
To avoid this issue, go later in the day and camp overnight at the canyon. The canyon is most scenic mornings and evenings anyway, and when the heat dies down, you have a chance to explore without getting grilled alive in Turkmenistan’s eternal summer.
Make a campfire, gaze up at the Milky Way and wake up refreshed for a final look at the scenery before heading on. Be warned that it gets surprisingly cold and windy at night. There is no wood to start a fire, or shops anywhere nearby for supplies, so everything should be carried in, and carried out again.
Walking for a few minutes brings you to the ‘Crocodile’s Mouth’, a promontory of two horizontal overhangs resembling snapping jaws, that juts out above the canyon floor. Standing on the top is not dangerous, as long as you have a stomach for heights, and will make for an unforgettable photograph, but climbing into the mouth itself is discouraged. The rock is soft and crumbly; one wrong step and that photograph could prove to be the last one taken of you alive.
The road to Yangykala
You can reach Yangykala both from Turkmenbashy and Balkanabat. It works well as a detour between those 2 cities if you are taking the Caspian Sea Ferry. For this, and all routes involving off-road driving in the desert, at least two 4×4 vehicles, experienced off-road drivers and plenty of spare petrol and water are important measures.
If you are looking to visit on your transit visa, the coordinates are 40°27’656″N 54°42’816″E (Gmaps). Don’t expect any Turkmen not working in the tourism industry to know what you’re talking about.
Heading westwards from Balkanabat along the main road to Turkmenbashy, the small town of Jebel is reached after 18km. Turn right here, keeping the massif of Big Balkan to your right.
Tasharvat
After 20 km, amidst arid, undulating terrain, you will reach a spring on the right-hand side of the road, supporting a verdant grove. This is Tasharvat. A little concrete area has been built here, with a somewhat incoherent Soviet-era sculpture and an inscription reporting that the place was constructed in 1978 by Bulgarian builders.
A lever brings forth water from a metal pipe. Another inscription resolves that, through this spring, the roots of Bulgarian–Soviet friendship will never dry up. Three stone benches allow the weary traveller to sit and contemplate Bulgarian–Soviet friendship. On the hillside beyond this stand the ruins of a caravanserai.
Gozli Ata
The road runs north of Tasharvat, gradually deteriorating in quality, for some 80km, before it hits a road running eastwards from Turkmenbashy (by which route you can reach this point with approximately the same degree of difficulty and distance). Turning east, you get to the small village of Kosheba after 13km.
Some 15km further on, a turning to the right is signposted for Gozli Ata, 9km away.
Gozli Ata is one of the remotest shrine pilgrimage destinations in Turkmenistan. Its setting is also among the most beautiful. It lies in the centre of a natural bowl, surrounded by escarpments of bands of pink and white rock. Gozli Ata was reportedly a respected Sufi who lived in the early part of the 14th century.
His mausoleum is a brick building with twin white domes, standing in an old graveyard containing many nicely carved stone tombs. The twin-domed structure of the mausoleum is necessary to accommodate the length of the tomb: a triangular prism perhaps three ordinary graves long.
Yangysuw canyon
After visiting Yangykala, go 25 km beyond to visit the similar Yangysuw Canyon. The top of the canyon appears suddenly, its walls and floor sculpted out of bright white rock, rather than the pinks and greens predominating at Yangykala. The track then descends steeply into the canyon, towards the eastern shores of Garabogazgol, a few kilometres away along dismal tracks.
The track to Yangysuw is very bad, so it really is only for the most dedicated of travelers, as getting there adds a lot of extra time, and money, and most will find Yangykala Canyon is more than enough for a vista of desolate beauty. An experienced guide is needed to navigate the right route, as there are many competing tracks here.
Beyond Yangykala
From Yangykala, it is possible to push on through the desert, northeast to end up in Dashoguz and Konye-Urgench, or directly east to hit the Darwaza gas crater. En route, you can see the Altyn Asyr Lake.
Altyn Asyr Lake
Back on the tarmac but pot-holed road, the village of Gyzyl Gaya lies 75km east of the turnings to Yangykala. The village is a bleak place, full of the detritus of an abandoned mining industry. There is a restricted zone checkpoint just to the west of the village. You cannot go further on a transit visa.
The Garashor Depression is some 150km east of here, across rough tracks. With a flat floor and in many places sheer sides, it runs from northwest to southeast for 100km, though is nowhere more than about 20km wide.
In 2000, after much thought on how to do the maximum amount of environmental damage for the maximum amount of money, the Turkmen government decided to fill the depression with water, to construct the Altyn Asyr Lake.
After Altyn Asyr (meaning: the Golden Age) was declared by president Turkmenbashy in a speech around the turn of the millennium, the whole country got rebranded. If Turkmens do not believe they are living it, at least they cannot avoid cursing it, since absolutely everything, from their football team to their tv station, is called Altyn Asyr.
20 years and 6 billion dollars later, the lake is mostly empty, and the water situation in Turkmenistan has gotten progressively worse. If you can stomach it, you can read a full report on the lake from The Third Pole.
Tours
Getting to Yangykala without help is only possible if you have your own 4WD. If you’d like to experience it with the help of an experienced Turkmen tour operator, get in touch!
