Ust-Yurt Plateau, Kazakhstan

The Ustyurt Plateau, spanning Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, is a vast, arid expanse stretching from the Gulf of Kara-Bogaz-Gol and the Mangyshlak Peninsula in the west to the Amu Darya delta and the Aral Sea in the east. Roughly the size of Iceland and South Korea combined, it is characterised by stony, clay, and sandy deserts and was once the site of a 21-million-year-old sea during the early to middle Cenozoic Era. Along the edges of its dead-flat salt pans, striking chalk escarpments rise up to 150m, creating dramatic contrasts in the landscape.

Though inhospitable for humans, the Ustyurt is home to a surprising variety of wildlife, including jerboa, ground squirrels, tortoises, Egyptian vultures, eagles, long-eared hedgehogs, golden eagles, Karakal lynxes, and the elusive saiga antelope. These Ustyurt Plateau photos are from a 2017 off-road journey covering 1,000km with the Aktau-based travel agency Экспедиция +362 (Expedition +362). If you have your own transport, Yerlan and his team can assist with logistics.

For more Ustyurt Plateau photos and to read about the region’s history and geography, see my BBC Travel story. The Mangystau Region holds an estimated 725 million tonnes of recoverable oil across more than 70 sites, and a handful of refineries also operate on the Uzbek side. Fortunately, Kazakhstan’s Ustyurt Nature Reserve and Uzbekistan’s Saigachiy Reserve — three times larger — provide some protection. Ongoing efforts by Central Asian and international scientists aim to expand these protected areas into a trans-border biosphere reserve and eventually secure UNESCO World Heritage Site status to ensure the plateau’s long-term preservation.

A 100 metre high cliff line shining bright orange in the sunset. Piles of rubble at the bottom of the cliff.
A sloping escarpment descends towards a desolate Ustyurt salt pan.
A rock table top mountain with golden cliffs overlooks a desert plateau.
A dry, seasonal river bed cuts across a stretch of plateau in the Ustyurt of western Kazakhstan.
A single tower of chalk rock pokes up out of the scrubby desert landscape.
An expansive view of desert escarpment and flat plateau below.
A wide view of the remains of a desert hunting trap overlooking a vast sea of desolate, rocky desert in Kazakhstan.
A red, orange, brown, and white coloured cliff stands above limestone desert slopes.
Slabs of horizontal rock left behind from a prehistoric hunting pen in the Ustyurt.
A 50 metre high arch made of chalk cliff with a man sat at the bottom.
Dead flat salt pans with desert mountains in distance and sun peering over the horizon.
Long, white chalk cliffs converge in the distance, overlooking a sandy Kazakhstan desert.
A flat mountain top and rocky tower bathed in golden sunset light, with desert in the foreground.
A tiny green plant pokes out of the white, chalky desert earth.
A chalk arch the size of a building on the edge of a western Kazakhstan desert.
A boulder completely hollowed out by wind erosion sits in a desert.
A black and white photo of a desert tower half cast in a sunset, with the other side in shadow.
A flat escarpment leading out to a peninsula overlooking an expansive flat plateau in western Kazakhstan.
White cliffs of the Ustyurt sloping down in to a maroon coloured soil and white salt pan.
A near full moon in a blue sky hangs over orange and white stratified desert cliffs.
Looking down into a white salt desert pan from atop a cliff.
Silhouette of a man cartwheeling on a salt pan as the sun is setting.
An offroad truck parked beneath limestone cliffs on the edge of a desert.
Chalk white desert mountain tops bathed in sunshine and far in the distance.
Dried bushes poking out of stony ground overlook a multicoloured limestone desert mountain in the distance.
A salt pan in the Ustyurt plateau devoid of any water and beneath big, blue skies.
A rocky cliff overlooks an angled slope which leads down towards a Kazakh plateau.
Sun setting behind the clouds on the edge of a white cliff rimmed desert.
A circular shaped hunting pen formed from slab rock sits on the edge of a cliff.
Black and white image of desert foreground and a rugged mountain overlooking an empty expanse in background.
A man in a white shirt walks towards an amphitheatre of rock and a rock arch in the Ustyurt, Kazakhstan.
A wide shot of a chain of three towers with scrubby, flat plateau in the foreground.
A flat plateau of orange and white shattered rock stretches out in front of rocky towers in the Ustyurt.
A man wearing a khaki shirt does a handstand and grimaces.
Three camel humped rocky mountains sit alone in a remote desert salt pan near Turkmenistan.
Blue sky above, with a white salt pan in the middle and green, scrubby desert landscape in foreground.
A slab of hand piled stones, which once formed a desert hunting trap, slide off the edge of an escarpment.
A pure white chalk cliff with ruffled slopes overlooks a sandy, scrubby section of plateau.
An expanse of scrubby orange and brown desert with short cliffs either side.
Black and white photo in Ustyurt showing complex ridges of water-worn chalk cliffs in desert.
Weathered gully and cliff line descending down to a bleached white desert salt pan.
Looking down into an immense and inhospitable expanse of Ustyurt desert plateau that stretches into the horizon.
An off-road car parked on a dirt track leading up a desert valley.
A sandy, flat expanse of Ustyurt desert in front of chalk cliffs with water worn slopes.
A humped, chalk white hill with weathered slopes overlooks a patch of desert.
A table top, orange rock mountain sits on a sloping pile of white chalk in the Kazakh desert.
Small, green bushes poke out of the sand in front of tall, sloping chalk cliffs.
A view of Ustyurt mountains sat atop chalky white slopes.
White clouds, blue skies, sandy desert and a long row of chalk cliff line.
Short, upright slabs of rock on the edge of an Ustyurt escarpment, which once formed an ancient hunting trap.
Two rocky towers in the Ustyurt separated by a pass and overlooking weather chalk cliffs.
A desert explorer crouches down to inspect decayed plant matter in an Ustyurt salt pan.
A single tower of rock with a steep promontory overlooks the Ustyurt plateau.
An old Soviet-era survey marker formed out of three tall metal tubes stands in the western Kazakh desert.
Wide angle view of three hump-shaped mountains in the middle of a giant, dry, and white salt plan near Turkmenistan.
A fin-like tower of rock looms over a large, sloping cliff line.

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