Yangykala Canyon

Five and a half million years ago this was the floor of the Tethys Sea; today it is the closest thing Central Asia has to the Grand Canyon, and you will very likely have it entirely to yourself. The Yangykala Canyons — the name means "fire fortresses" — are a sweep of limestone cliffs up to 100 metres tall, banded in pink, crimson, white and yellow, that the retreating sea carved into bastions, ramparts and one famous promontory that juts out like a crocodile's jaw. The colors shift with the hour: chalky and pale at midday, molten at sunset, which is when our drivers aim to have you standing on the rim. This is one of the remotest showpieces in the country — about 160 km east of Turkmenbashi and 165 km north of Balkanabat, the last stretch on rough desert track that demands a 4WD and a driver who knows the way, because there are no signs, no facilities and no other traffic. That emptiness is the point: no railings between you and the drop, no queue at the viewpoint, just wind and geology. Some 25 km beyond the canyons lies Gozli Ata, one of Turkmenistan's most revered pilgrimage shrines, resting in a natural bowl of pink-and-white rock — visiting the two together, as pilgrims and travelers both do, is one of the great experiences of western Turkmenistan. On GÖL NOMADS private tours, Yangykala is the wild heart of our Caspian itineraries: we come up from Turkmenbashi with a packed dinner, watch the cliffs catch fire at dusk, and overnight in yurts by Gozli Ata before continuing toward the Kazakh border or back to the coast. Bring a warm layer even in summer — the plateau wind is real — and twice the memory card you think you need.