Small Kok-Kol Tour

Zyryanovsk village was founded in 1791 after Gerasim Zyryanov discovered a rich deposit of polymetallic ores there. The village was named after him.
Katon-Karagai settlement was formed in Soviet times by merging two settlements: Katon-Karagai volost settlement, founded in 1868, and Cossack village Altai, founded in 1871. The villages were located two miles away from each other. Nowadays, these two settlements form a single whole. In contrast to the beginning of XX century, the beginning of XXI can be characterized as a period of significant decline of Katon-Karagai. In place of a large number of houses there are only grass-covered bumps now, many buildings stand in ruins and make a painful impression.

Berel necropolis has been known to the general public since 1998 thanks to unique findings obtained in one of its largest mounds, although the first excavations were carried out here as far back as 1865 by the famous archaeologist Vasiliy Radlov. Today Berelsky burial ground counts more than 100 funerary and memorial structures of the early nomadic era. A group of researchers discovered the royal burial, where the tsar with the queen and thirteen red horses in full decoration have been resting in the mound for about two millennia. The studied burial mound is a special structure erected for the burial of a person who occupied the highest position in the social ladder of the nomadic Scythian-Saxon tribes of the Altai sub-region.

Yazevoye Lake is very popular among tourists who want to get to the foot of Belukha or to the very top, because the lake is located, perhaps, on the most popular trail in the area, leading to Kok-Kol lower camp, where there are many attractions. The main feature of the lake is a tourist base, founded in the distant Soviet Union. To this day, this base is still functioning and hosts many tourist groups.
Karakus is a small lake with a circumference of about 1.5 km. It is located in a dense forest and you can approach its shore only in one place, everything else is swamped. The lake is surrounded by high mountain ridges covered with cedar trees and spruce woods. The area seems completely wild, with traces of bear, roe deer, elk and maral.

Kok-Kol waterfall represents a sharp ledge about 80 meters high and steep about 60-70°. The water stream over 10 m wide falls from the wall of the Berel spur down with a deafening rumble that can be heard far away in the area. The water falling from the ledge is divided into 2 mighty streams and several small brooks. Hitting the rocks, they break and create a magnificent picture of the mighty bubbling water. Falling into the bowl, the water forms clouds of splashes that rise upwards and, illuminated by the sun, turn into a rainbow. Below the waterfall, the channel of the Big Kok-Kol is swamped with huge boulders forming thresholds. There are several small waterfall cascades in this part of the stream. On the rocks of the Kok-Kol waterfall some tourists managed to find Chinese letters and drawings.

Ravnovesiya Lake is located at an altitude of approximately 2280 m above sea level and has glacial origin. The water in the lake is so clean and clear that on hot summer days it beckons into its icy embrace. There are only 2 kilometers from Kok-Kol camp to the lake, but the distance is different for everyone. Somebody passes it in an hour. And someone is prevented by endless blueberry thickets and a lot of mushrooms. It is quite often possible to meet Roerich's followers on the lake, because an array of Belukha is reflected in the perfectly mirrored water surface of the lake, as well as the three peaks surrounding the lake - Faith, Hope and Love. From this trinity, Love, by the way, is the most impregnable. Everyone on the shores of the lake is looking for something different: beautiful landscape, cosmic or other mystical forces...

Sarsembai winterhut is located in a wide valley, on the right bank of the White Berel River, a little away from the old road on which tungsten ore was transported from the Kok-Kol mine in the distant 1938-1954 years. Every year at the beginning of summer cattle are ferried here from the valley of Bukhtarma River. By the end of summer the cattle noticeably increase in weight, because there is an abundance of fodder in the surroundings. This place is popular not only with shepherds, but also with tourists, as the winterhut is almost in the middle of a two-day route from Yazevoye Lake to  Kok-Kol lower camp. Also, at the place of winterhut, the most suitable ford across the White Berel River is located, and most tourist groups stay for overnight there.

Yasnaya Polyana is a guest house, and it is extremely difficult to find the words to describe it succinctly. It contains everything you need to fully immerse into the Altai culture, to be detached from the urban bustle, and to charge of vigor and energy of the beauty that surrounds you. Wooden house (log cabin) is built and decorated with own hands of the owners. In each element of the interior invested love and care for the guests. A real village stove on firewood, a player of vinyl records, which, by the way, here is in large quantity. And a huge number of interior items, made by the hands of the owner of the house.
Cozy ailas are traditional hexagonal dwellings of ancient Altaiers, which are also built and decorated with love and awe that is felt in every detail.

Starting in the village of Chingistai, the old Austrian road goes almost strictly to the south through the Burkhat Pass, Alatai Pass and the unique Markakol Lake to the Marble Pass, and further to Terekty village at the Chinese border. The road was built by prisoners of war of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War of 1914-1920s, because of that it got its name, which is not official. The road was exclusively strategic in protecting the borders of the Russian Empire, shortening the route from Katon to Markakol up to 90 km instead of 500 km. 300 people in inhuman conditions built this road by hand in 2 years. Nobody knows today how many of them died on the construction site, and how many returned to their homeland or remained in Kazakhstan...

Ak-Baur neolithic temple complex is one of the most unique cultural monuments of the Ore Altai, located in 40 km from Ust-Kamenogorsk, in the upper reaches of Akbaur brook. Exactly on the hillside of Ak-Baur hill there is a grotto of the same name with a natural opening "on the roof" and rock images inside, made of red ochre (or blood of sacrificial animals). Paintings of such color are not found anywhere else in Eastern Kazakhstan. Reverence for heights was common in many early cultures and is related to the fact that the mountains were thought to be the home of local deities. They symbolized the center of the world, the place where heaven and earth meet, eternity and aspiration to the highest world. It was on the basis of the cults of the mountains that many early forms of religion were formed.