Getting there
Via the village of Saty, where most routes begin. You can stay overnight there too.
Three lakes, one above the other, and each next one has to be walked to.
As the crow flies it is just over a hundred kilometres from here, but the road has to go around the mountains and comes to about three hundred.
The lakes rise in steps up the gorge: the Lower at about 1,800 metres, the next, Mynzhylky, at about 2,250, and the upper one higher still. The Lower stretches for a kilometre and a half and is up to 80 metres deep. Most visitors go no further, which is a mistake.
The national park was created in 2007 and has been part of UNESCO's biosphere network since 2021. More than 650,000 people visited in a year, and in 2026 talk began of a daily limit on entry.
- Altitudes
- from 1,800 to almost 2,900 m
- From Almaty
- about 300 km by road
- Depth of the Lower
- up to 80 m
- National park
- since 2007
