Kokkala is a landscape of multicoloured clays and limestones more than 170 million years old. In sunlight the rock takes on blue and grey-green tones — hence the name, "the blue fortress".
Kokkala is a range of hills built from multicoloured clay and limestone, 110 kilometres from Aktau. The canyon was shaped by tectonics and by erosion of Jurassic deposits more than 170 million years old.
Layers of clay, limestone and ancient marine sediment form strange hills and narrow passages. In sunlight the rock turns bluish, grey-green and pale sand — which is how the place earned the name Kokkala, the blue fortress.
Unfossilised charcoal is found here, along with imprints of fern leaves and twigs — traces of the forest that stood here in the Jurassic. A night at Kokkala is one of the darkest in the region: the nearest villages are far away and the sky is fully open.
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.
Torysh Valley of Stone Balls → Kok-Kala → Mount Sherkala and 1 more stop
Kapamsay Canyon → The Shakpak-Ata mosque → Shakpak-Ata Sai and 5 more stops
Karagiye → Onere (spring) → Karynzharyk and 24 more stops