Kazakhstan in 10 days: Almaty, the Silk Road & the Mangystau desert by 4x4

We ended the day with a cable car ride up Kok Tobe hill at sunset, to see the whole city from above with the mountains turning pink behind it.

Known as the Pearls of the Northern Tian Shan, the three Kolsay lakes sit at about 1,800, 2,250 and 2,850 metres. We walked along the lower lake, surrounded by spruce forest and mountains. The lakes are popular for hiking, camping and boating, and in summer there are wild raspberries and blackberries along the paths.

Where we slept

That night we slept in a guesthouse with a local family in the village of Saty, with a home cooked dinner.

On the way to Turkestan we stopped at the mausoleum of Arystan Bab, the spiritual teacher of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. Tradition says pilgrims should visit him first, before going to Turkestan. The ruins of Otrar, the Silk Road city destroyed by Genghis Khan's army in 1219, are right next to it.

We reached Turkestan in the late afternoon and had our first look at the mausoleum at sunset, its turquoise domes glowing above the old walls. Right next to it is the Karavansaray, a new tourist complex built in the style of a Silk Road caravan stop, with canals, shops and restaurants, and local women in the white kimeshek headdress sitting on carpets in the square.

The only immersive experience of our trip, and a fun one. Inside the Karavansaray complex, next to the mausoleum, there's a building shaped like a giant golden egg in a nest, from the Kazakh legend of Samruk, the mythical bird. Inside is a flying theatre: you sit strapped in a seat that lifts and tilts in front of a huge dome screen, and Samruk takes you on a flight over the whole country, from the Caspian Sea to the Charyn Canyon, the Kolsay lakes, the mountains and the steppe. A nice way to see from above the places we had just visited, and a preview of the Caspian that was waiting for us.

Shows run every half hour and last about 30 minutes. Tickets are 6,500 tenge for adults.

An underground mosque carved into the soft limestone, with a necropolis in front of it, and one of the oldest in Mangystau. In July 2026 Shakpak Ata and four other rock mosques of Mangystau, Beket-Ata, Shopan-Ata, Karaman-Ata and Sultan-Epe, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A rugged canyon with walls up to 100 metres high and striking white rock formations. It is so remote that we had it almost to ourselves, and there is a big yellow frame on the edge for the classic group photo.

Hundreds of stone spheres scattered across the steppe, some up to 3 metres wide. Geologists say they are tens of millions of years old: they formed on the floor of the ancient Tethys Ocean, as minerals built up in layers around a shell or a shark tooth.

A local legend has a better story: an army of invaders descended on Mangystau like locusts, the locals prayed for help, and their prayers were answered with storms, thunder and lightning that turned the invaders to stone in an instant.

Seen from the drone, they are everywhere. Many, many balls!

Then, after another corner, a dry lake bed cracked into perfect tiles, and from the edge of the plateau a view all the way to the Caspian Sea.

Sherkala, the Lion's Castle, is a lone mountain rising about 300 metres above the steppe. From one side it looks like a giant yurt, and from the other like a sleeping lion.

We got there just before sunset, with the light turning the stripes of the mountain gold.

At the end of the day we reached the ethnic village of Kogez, to spend the night in traditional Kazakh yurts. It was my first time sleeping in a yurt, so I was quite excited.

A plateau of about 200,000 square kilometres stretching from Kazakhstan into Uzbekistan. It is hard to believe, but the entire plateau was once covered by the Tethys Ocean, and you can still pick up fossils from the ground: I found a fossil sea urchin in my hand. On the way we stopped in a small village to refuel and for a quick lunch, a big bowl of meat and vegetable soup.

Definitely one of the best spots. Tuzbair is a dry salt lake with stunning white shores under white cliffs and arches. It's huge and really impressive. The salt is so concentrated that, seen from above, the white soil creates a small mirage: the lake looks full of water even in summer.

After the view from the top it took us an hour's drive to reach the bottom, and down there we were literally in the middle of nowhere, and loving it. Walk carefully: every now and then the salt crust breaks and you sink into the mud underneath.

While we were taking all possible pictures of this incredible place, the guides set up our tents at the foot of the cliffs and cooked a tasty beef plov under the stars. My usual very important check before zipping up the tent: making sure I'm not sleeping with unwelcome guests. I'd missed camping!

Waking up to this view the next morning is priceless: sunrise over the salt, breakfast in the open, then one last walk on the white lake bed before the drive.

About 80% of Mangystau is off road, so you'd better like it a bit bumpy. The Kyzylkup hills are nicknamed Tiramisu for their layers of cream and cocoa: the white layers are chalk and the red ones contain iron. To me it looked more like a strawberry tiramisu.

Mangystau has amazing landscapes, and it went directly into the top three of my favourite places in the world.

Then the long drive back to civilisation in Aktau, for our last night in Kazakhstan.