Happiness is not far off, it is in the mountains!
Mountains have always amazed people with their greatness, inaccessibility and unpredictability. From their slopes, people admired the picturesque valleys and canyons, noisy waterfalls and stormy rivers.
East Kazakhstan is one of the most mountainous regions of the country. The Listvyaga, Kholzun, Ivanovsky, Ulbinsky and Ubinsky mountain ranges form the Kazakhstan part of a huge mountain country united by the common name Altai. The highest point of Altai, Mount Belukha, is the border of Kazakhstan and Russia. Most of the mountain ranges are covered with dense taiga forests, and the peaks are covered with permanent snow and glaciers. The mountain systems are separated by wide intermountain depressions. The largest of them are Zaisan and Alakol. On the west goes the mighty mountain range Tarbagatai, covered with relict thickets of apple trees and aspen-birch floodplains.
The main attraction is Mount Belukha.
Belukha, the highest mountain in Siberia (4509 meters), was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998. It is equidistant from the three oceans and is therefore considered the center of Eurasia.
Mount Belukha impresses with the harshness and steepness of the ice and snow walls. The mountain has two distinct peaks - Eastern Belukha (4,509 meters) and Western Belukha (4,435 meters). Nicholas Roerich wrote about Belukha: "Belukha is the Sumeru of Asia, stands as a snow-white witness of the past and a guarantor of the future."
