Sultan-Epe is an underground mosque with round light wells in its vaults. Legend makes Sultan-Epe the patron of the drowning and of fishermen, so sailors have come here for centuries.
Sultan-Epe is an underground cult complex 120 kilometres from Aktau. The chambers are cut into the rock and lined with stone, and round light wells pierce the vaults: by day you see the sky through them and a column of light falls straight to the floor.
Sultan-Epe was the son of the Central Asian mystic poet Hakim-Ata, a disciple of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. Tradition makes him the patron of the drowning and of fishermen, so Caspian sailors came here for centuries.
The complex is small — half an hour is enough — but it is here that the logic of Mangystau's underground mosques reads best: coolness, silence and light that arrives only from above.
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.
Zhygylgan → The underground Sultan-Epe mosque → The Kenty-Baba necropolis and 18 more stops
Tamshaly Gorge → Zhygylgan → Sultan-Epe and 15 more stops
The Karagiye Depression → The Tuyesu dunes → Mount Bokty and 22 more stops