The Valley of Balls in the Torysh tract is one of Mangystau's most mysterious sites: stone concretions stretch for a hundred kilometres, shaped like spheres, nested dolls and discs, sometimes hiding fossils of ancient sea creatures.
The Valley of Balls unfolds within the Torysh tract and is considered one of the most mysterious places in the Mangystau region. Exposed stone concretions stretch here for more than a hundred kilometres, giving the area an otherworldly, almost alien appearance.
The concretions are not always perfectly round: some look like nested matryoshka dolls, others like cylinders or discs straight out of a UFO story. Their shapes were carved over the years by steppe wind, heat, rain and frost, which have covered the stones in a web of cracks.
Among the concretions travellers sometimes find fossilised remains of ancient ocean life — snail shells, ammonites, other molluscs, and the teeth and bones of sharks and other creatures from a long-vanished sea.
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