THE LOST WORLD OF

Paradox: All people of Shimkent see these mountains from their windows, but 90% of citizens don’t know how they are called. Even journalists call them Altau or just the Western Tien Shan in their materials while the former isn’t true at all and the latter has got much wider concept than mountain range Karzhantau, the closest mountain system to Shimkent.
Its mean height is just 2,5 km; however, it hasn’t got any roads leading to that side. Therefore, it isn’t easy to enter the wild, lost world of Karzhantau, which is located just 60km away from the city, but it has got many mysteries. We will mention about some of them in this material. It is good that your correspondent managed to make a long journey on foot to the depths of this mountain range.

Interstices of Susingen
The lake Susingen is the largest in the mountains of the region; it reaches a kilometer lengthwise and half-kilometer in width. Every year it disappears completely, and then it appears again. No, it doesn’t dry out-here everything is more difficult and interesting.
After getting over the pass of 2600 meters with heavy rucksacks on our backs and passing the snow-covered valley Uluch-Ura, from where we can still see Shimkent, which sinks in the heat of the hot weather going beyond 40 degrees and in the dust, making the air tangible thick, we are sitting on the threshold of undiscovered world Karzhantau.
Here on the top among the low alpine grasslands there is a kingdom of shepherds again, who haven’t been in the mountains since the collapse of collective farms, but everything has returned to its place and now most of the villagers employ them to breed the cattle in summer.
In the far below we can see the whole world of canyons, which links the river system Aygirdjirgan, the place where we will climb down. First, we meet the mazes of narrow sayes with small streams, here under the big stone we managed to see the pair of carelessly resting wolf cubs which vanished as they saw us.
These were already the second wild animals that we have met; we had met the first one while climbing up to the pass. It was a small herd of Caucasian goats of teks that saved their lives from heat in the snow-covered field.
We are going along the stream, which becomes larger and larger, passing the snow-covered bridge from the arch of which it is permanently raining because of melting snow. And here is the river, now it is easy to go further along its bank because there is a good pathway tamped by the cattle.
We are meeting the small shepherd’s camp which isn’t so far. There is a whole pile of some metallic parts near the tents. It is the corroded geological equipment. In the 60s of the last century there was a large group of geologists, namely, due to their efforts the Susingen minefield of iron ore appeared on the map.
However, nobody has ever mined the minerals here. Maybe it is technically possible to build the road to this place, but how much it will cost?! And the equipment was delivered by the helicopter.
— In the 70s the left drill tower stood here says, the aged shepherd, — then it collapsed. I have never seen the geologists themselves.
The valley sharply broadens. Now this entire place is covered with river pebbles. My fairly tired fellow travelers ask me all the time: Where is the lake?   
And it appears from the turn suddenly as usual and densely blue as usual in the framing covered with green grass and grey back rails of banks.
The fish romps in the river-it is the only resident of the local waters the bare osman from the family of trout. It isn’t large, but surprisingly soft and sweet.
We can see the green winding ribbon. It is the riverbed of river, which waves to its depth…
Every year at the end of July the lake begins to disappear swiftly and in August there is just a large, even green meadow along which the small river winds in its place.
 What is the matter? There is a great number of carsts, huge underground interstices in the lands of this place. That is where the water goes. There is a small reservoir under the mountains where the river streams. It seems that it is not so extraordinary for the first time. However, when we throw the stick there we can see the movement.
We see the pair of circles and the movement accelerates, and then the object disappears in the whirlpool. The impression is terrifying.
People say that disappearing water of Susingen exits as springs 70km from this place to Shimkent where it makes the river Koshkarata, but probably these are just legends.
It is incomprehensible why the lake disappears every year namely in summer although most probably, it can be connected with the fall of the water level of river which supplies it.

The wild paradise “Kiz-Zhaylyau”
There is a narrow canyon below Susingen covered with mess of moraine clutters. Our steps reflect from the mountains with resounding echo. There is a silence… but if we listen carefully we may catch the weak sound of purling water under some stone. Namely here there was our way to one more surprising place the hole Kiz-Zhaylyau.
This severe canyon has got its own sights. One of them is a cave.
Most of the people know about it, but nobody could reach to its end. Speleologists had come here from Sverdlovsk 20 years ago. They passed more than a kilometer of mazes, with huge halls and narrow manways, so they came out to the underground lake. However, they didn’t have enough supplies to go further. Nobody has made such attempts since then and the cave of Susingen is still mysterious.
This winter was so snowy that there are still fully snow-covered fields in the canyon. It isn’t easy to jump from the stone to stone, but one turn changes with another and we reach to grotto, where people had lived once. 
The dome is covered with the layer of smoke of ancient bonfires and there is a number of pictures on the walls.
Unlike petroglyphs which were stamped on the stones, these are the real pictures made with the natural colours of ochre which is also found here. 
Here is the man with crook and there is a pair of goats before him. There are mysterious symbols taken into frame and a man. Some parts of pictures are difficult to read.
The scientists have never learned this grotto and these pictures aren’t included into any catalogue. By the way, there aren’t any other places in the Southern Kazakhstan where you can see rock paintings with ochre.
The excavation works in the depth of this grotto, where probably there was a temporary stopping place for hunters could give good results.
However, it is not possible to pass the canyon where it is located even on horse; therefore, the scientists wouldn’t reach it so soon.
Everything has got its end and the canyon broadens swiftly and becomes ideally even. Here is the hole Kiz-Zhaylyau where we strived for. We see the small streams of water among the tall burdocks. And then the whole river dashes from the side canyon. The fish romps in the backwaters. The big black thrushes fly in the forest. The absence of people is primeval. There aren’t any other ways except two pathways, along which one can ride a horse. The shepherds stopped to breed the cattle here and only the old hearth on the overgrown stopping place reminds that once this place had been frequently visited by tourists.
At the turn of 70-80s of the last century Kiz-Zhaylyau had its own Robinson. This man was called Valera although he was famous by the nickname — the Lonely Wolf. He came to the hole in April and lived in the whole solitude till the end of November. He fed by hunting and walked totally bare and barefoot with ammunition belt on his waist. Once, the old hunter told me about the meeting with Lonely Wolf.
-I was sitting in the ambush waiting when the mountainous partridges will come to the watering place and suddenly I felt physically that someone is behind me. I turned and was stupefied. Absolutely bare man with a gun was sitting on the juniper in the distance of 10 metres. After catching my glance he made a gesture with hand that everything is OK and I am waiting fowl too.
Frankly speaking, it wasn’t so normal. However, we waited for the partridges and shot them. Then we got acquainted. He took me to his stopping place. He had two skulls on the perch there: one of them belonged to bear and another one to human. He told me that he had found the skeleton in the mountains. He was strange guy, it seemed that he smiled but the glance was somewhat severe.
The Lonely Wolf has disappeared since shepherds began to breed the cattle here. However, the tourists began to come frequently, but this time has also passed with the collapse of USSR and now the hole is deserted. We haven’t met a man in Kiz-Zhaylyau and its suburbs for four days of our journey, but we have met the guests from… America.
The black animal with the cat’s height tossed aside hearing our steps from the bordering bushes. It didn’t look like a stone-marten and it doesn’t hunt near the water. It is the American mink.
In the early 90s these animals ran away from the animal farms of Uzbekistan which are located 70 km from these places. The rivers of basin Ugam was rich for the fishes and it was the ideal place for their habitation. Now the mink has become the usual resident of Kiz-Zhaylyau.
Here we can meet such rare and perfect bird as black stork as well. At night eagle owl cries in the hole and the stones spill from the slopes under the hoofs of Caucasian goats.

Ugam is between past and future
And there is a road again, to be more precise the pathway which meanders fastidiously along the cliffs among the huge junipers. You began thinking involuntarily. How old are they? The juniper is a long-living tree, but it grows very slowly not more than 5sm a year.
It never forms thick forests since its roots separate along the mountain slopes in breadth. So the trees don’t bother each other in extracting the nourishing substances in the poor soils and save the slopes from washouts and landslides.
The timber of juniper doesn’t rot and namely this material was used in the construction of mausoleum of Ahmed Yasavi in Turkestan.
We are coming out to the vast hilly plateau Zhauzhurek. This place was always full of shepherds and the pathways where the cattle were bred were like roads, but now this place is deserted and it isn’t easy to find overgrown pathways.  
Namely Zhauzhurek starts the descent to the largest mountain river of the Ugamu region.
The border with Uzbekistan lies along the range of snow-covered mountain ridge on the opposite side of the canyon and Ugam takes its waters to the same Uzbekistan. 
Once there was a great number of tourists and camp sites “Southern” which were famous to the entire republic, now the camp site is occupied by the frontier post. And again there are no traces of human, but there is great amount of bear’s marks on the pathway near which the ripen bird cherry tree grows.
It means that the valley has become absolutely empty since bears don’t fear to walk along these pathways.
After several hours of journey from the pass Zhasilbel, finally we see the only settlement of 30 houses on this internal side of mountain ridge which is just called Leshoz. They say that Soviet power came to the settlement, which is cut from the large land by the pass Kiritkiz, only in 1940. Now there is a road leading to this place along which the four-wheel drive vehicle can go. In winter the only vehicles are tractors and horses.
There are large apple and pear gardens, which become the paradise for wild boar hunters in autumn. The valley conquers with its primordial greatness.
There are apiaries all over the land in the suburbs of the settlement. One of the beekeepers Altinbek invited us to his house.
After the hardest weekly pass, with the ratio of “packet soups” the watermelon and fresh mountain honey seem to be the bliss of heaven. We begin the conversation about how the valley became wild involuntarily.
— We have seen the marks of bear not far away from the settlement, — we say to Altinbek.
— They banned to breed the cattle up along the river. There are almost no tourists. The number of bears increased — says, Altinbek, — I have even killed one of them although I am not a hunter.
-???
— My doggy barked at night once, — Altinbek shows small mongrel,-it barked and ran under my bed immediately. I hear someone breaking the hives. I took the gun and ran there. Someone larger roars and is busy with hive. I cried and here the bear kicked back. I fired for two times. He ran away and I stayed still till morning. I found the bear dead 200 metres away from the river.
The apiary of Altinbek is just some kilometer away from the village.
It is true that everything may change soon in the valley with unique nature. It is not the first year as they try to find investor in the region for the construction of cascade hydropower plant in Ugam. The region needs cheap power energy, but at the same time we need the protected valley with the maiden nature…

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