!!!Altai, Chulyshman Valley

Photos by [Stanislav Sedov|http://rccam.livejournal.com],
member of the [AirPano Team|Geography/About/Consortium/AirPano,_Team] that is a member of the [global-geography Consortium|Geography/About/Consortium]. \\

12 August 2020

with kind permission of [AirPano|http://www.AirPano.com]

Altai possesses a lot of world-famous places that have been listed as
UNESCO World Heritage Sites with, for example, Lake Teletskoye among
them. But there are many less known yet even lovelier Altai lakes, such
as Lake Chagakel, the largest lake among Saryach?k lakes group which
feeds the Saryachek River.

[{Image src='01_Altai.jpg' caption='Above Lake Chagakel. Altai, Russia\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='428'}]

The largest inflow of Lake Teletskoye is the Chulyshman River spanning
240 km. For most of the length, it reveals its turbulent "mountain"
nature: it is full of rapids, waterfalls and shallows that don't stop
the experienced whitewater lovers.

[{Image src='02_Altai.jpg' caption='Altai, Chulyshman Valley. Russia\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='558'}]

The Chulyshman Valley originates from the upper sources, Lake Julukul,
and stretches till flowing into Lake Teletskoye. The riverbed lies in
between 500-meters high mountains slopes and curves as a snake.
Probably, that was why it was named this way: "cholush" in the Altai
language means "criss-cross".

One of the sections of the valley is the area Akkurum which is located
15 km away from Lake Teletskoye on the right bank of the river. One can
witness unusual stone formations that had appeared as a result of
weathering and water erosion. Some of them are as high as 7 meters!
According to scientists, the thin "stems" of these "mushrooms" are
formed of soft rocks that are exposed to severe weather conditions,
while the "heads" made of harder rock are more resistant to strong winds
and were only slightly sharpened. As natural mushrooms, these ones
eventually disappear, but new ones appear on their place as the natural
geological processes can't be prevented.

[{Image src='03_Altai.jpg' caption='Mushroom rocks in Chulyshman Valley\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='460'}]

Another great landmark of this area and the most dangerous point is the
Katu-Yaryk Pass ("solid crack", "ravine" in the Altai language). The
height from the bottom to the observation point is over 1,000 meters. It
reveals a breathtaking view of the Chulyshman Valley and surrounding
slopes, Karasu (Katu-Yaryk) waterfall and a serpentine-road with nine
curves. The descent is very steep: the inclination angle is around 70%
(35°), the vertical drop is 900 meters, the overall length is 3,700
meters.

The Katu-Yaruk Pass has the first motorway leading to the Chulyshman
Valley. It was created in 1989, and till then local people had used
steep horse trails or water routes going through Lake Teletskoye. But
even now only a powerful all-terrain vehicle is able to drive across
this stony road.

[{Image src='04_Altai.jpg' caption='Katu-Yaryk Pass. Chulyshman River\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='558'}]

To the south-west of the Katu-Yaryk, there is a mysterious memorial
dated the Scythian Age (the Iron Age, 6th to 3rd centuries BC) and
called the Pazyryk burials. The barrow-like tomb mounds have immense
sizes and measure from 24 to 47 meters in diameter with a height of 1.5
to 3.75 meters. Inside these burial graves, there are wooden chambers
with double walls and a ceiling where coffins were stored. The coffins
were decorated with ornaments featuring mythical and real beings. Just
near these tomb mounds, there is the horse burial that contained up to
14 horse bodies with entire harnessing and armour equipment.

[{Image src='05_Altai.jpg' caption='Pazyryk burials. Altai, Russia\\© [AirPano|https://www.AirPano.com]' alt='' width='900' popup='false' height='558'}]

While many of the tombs had already been looted in earlier times, even
the remnants that have survived to our time are beyond imagination and
impress with their wealth and elegance. That's why the burials were
named "royal" ("tsarskiye" in Russian). So admire these outstanding
natural and historical landmarks of Altai together with AirPano!

AirPano team would like to express gratitude to the Saylyugemsky
National Park and personally Valentina Semenchenko for help with
organisation of shooting the Altai.

\\ \\
[7 panoramas of Altai, Chulysman Valley|Geography/Asia/Russia/Pictures/altay-chulyshman]

[{SET customtitle='Altai, Chulyshman valley (AP)'}]











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