What are the highlights of Mangystau?

The Bozjyra badlands, the spherical rocks of Torysh, the Tuzbair salt flats, ancient underground mosques, and the cliffs of the Ustyurt plateau.

When is the best time to visit?

Spring and autumn — April to early June and September to October. Summer is punishingly hot and winter is cold and windy.

By guided 4x4 camping expedition — Mangystau is remote and roadless in places, so trips are self-sufficient with a driver-guide. Aktau is the gateway airport.

Things to do in Mangystau

Mangystau, on the Caspian, is Kazakhstan's most otherworldly landscape — chalk-white cliffs, sculpted canyons, salt flats and underground mosques scattered across an empty desert plateau. Photographs barely prepare you: it is a place of spherical stone fields, tabletop mountains striped like layer cake, and silence so complete it rings.

Badlands and plateau

Expeditions and trekking to the Bozjyra badlands and Tuzbair salt flats, the Torysh 'valley of balls', and 4x4 journeys across the Ustyurt plateau to underground mosques and box canyons, in western Kazakhstan. Open the Book here tab for dates.