Mount Bokty is a layered outlier rising from flat desert, nicknamed "the pie" for its alternating white, ochre and reddish bands. Its silhouette appears on the 1000 tenge banknote.
Mount Bokty stands in the middle of a flat desert plain 280 kilometres from Aktau: a layered outlier with almost geometrically even bands of rock. That layering gave it the name Bokty — "the pie".
Every layer is a trace of the ancient Tethys Ocean, whose waters deposited sediment here over millions of years. White, ochre, reddish and grey bands look as if applied by hand. The silhouette is so recognisable that it appears on the 1000 tenge note issued by the National Bank of Kazakhstan.
Around it lie cracked takyr clay and steppe where camels graze; you only sense the scale when a car or a person stands at the foot. The road runs over dirt tracks, and the visit is usually combined with Bozzhira. The mountain is written both as Mount Bokty and as Bokty Mountain; both names refer to the same outlier.
Honest numbers before you take the wheel. We are not selling an adventure — we are explaining what you would be dealing with.
Driving here yourself requires four-wheel drive and a water supply: there are no fuel stations or services on the route.
Shots from our trips — click to enlarge
Leave the logistics to people who drive here all year round: prepared vehicles, satellite communication and a guide who knows where the ground holds and where it does not.
Karagiye → Onere (spring) → Karynzharyk and 24 more stops
Zhygylgan → Kapamsay Canyon → The Shakpak-Ata mosque and 11 more stops
Tamshaly Gorge → Zhygylgan → Sultan-Epe and 15 more stops