Ust-Yurt Plateau, Kazakhstan

Located in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Ustyurt is a dry plateau that stretches from the Gulf of Kara-Bogaz-Gol (or Garabogazköl Aylagy) and the Mangyshlak Peninsula in the west to the Amu Darya delta and the Aral Sea in the east. It’s roughly the size of Iceland and South Korea combined and it is characterised by stony, clay, and sandy desert areas. It’s also the former site of a 21 million-year-old sea in the early to middle Cenozoic Era. Flanking many of the dead flat salt pans are chalk escarpments rising to 150m high from the floor. It’s a relatively inhospitable environment for humans. Still, there is plenty of wildlife ranging from hopping jerboa, ground squirrels, tortoises, Egyptian vultures, eagles, long-needled hedgehogs, golden eagles, Karakal lynxes, and the ever-elusive saiga. These Ustyurt Plateau photos are from a 2017 trip to the area where we covered 1,000 km off-road with Aktau-based travel agency Экспедиция +362 (Expedition +362)—If you have your own transport, Yerlan and his team can assist you with any logistics.

If you want to see more Ustyurt Plateau photos and read more about the region’s history and geography, then check out my BBC Travel story. The Mangystau Region is estimated to have 725 million tonnes of recoverable oil reserves across 70+ sites. There are also a small number of refineries operating in the Uzbek Ustyurt too. Fortunately, Kazakhstan’s Ustyurt Nature Reserve and Uzbekistan’s Saigachiy Reserve — which is three times larger — have a degree of protection from the extractive industry. Despite this, the Central Asian and international scientific community are researching how to expand them into a trans-border biosphere reserve across all three countries and eventually secure its long-term future by acquiring a UNESCO World Heritage Site status. To license these images please contact me on info@matthewtraver.com.

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

My photography has been published in the following outlets:

Russia Beyond the Headlines logo.
Men's Running black text logo.
The New York Times logo.
Alpinist Magazine's logo.
ExplorersWeb online adventure news outlet logo.
Love Nature's logo with multiple colours and textures.
Russian Life logo in blue text.
Sidetracked Magazine logo in black and white.
Ripcord Adventure Journal logo in red, black and white.
Trek & Mountain Magazine's logo.
Geographical Magazine logo in white text with black background.
Action Asia Magazine logo.