Ukok Plateau

Ukok is a plateau at around two thousand two hundred to two thousand five hundred metres in the far south of the Altai republic, treeless, cold, and lying where Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia meet. It is part of the Golden Mountains of Altai UNESCO site and is designated a quiet zone, with restrictions on movement and activity. Snow leopard, argali and steppe eagle are present. Its wider fame comes from archaeology: in 1993 a Pazyryk kurgan on the plateau yielded a woman's body preserved in ice for around two and a half thousand years, with elaborate tattoos and a headdress, now known as the Ukok Princess. The find is contested - Altai communities have argued strongly that the body should be returned and reburied rather than displayed, and it is now held in Gorno-Altaysk. Border permits are compulsory and the plateau is a serious undertaking.

History

The plateau was home to the people modern scholars call the Pazyryk, whose culture closely resembled that of the Scythians to the west and who buried their dead in log-lined kurgans, many of them now frozen in the permafrost. Excavations here have kept yielding finds, the best known being the Ice Maiden excavated by the Russian archaeologist Natalia Polosmak, and at least six tattooed mummies preserved by the permafrost have been recovered from Ukok sites including Ak-Alakha 3, Verkh-Kaldzhin 2 and the Pazyryk burial ground. The plateau, one of the last remnants of the mammoth steppe and a refuge of the snow leopard and argali, is part of the Golden Mountains of Altai World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Ukok Plateau).

Highlights

• The plateau - treeless high ground at two thousand two hundred metres and above.
• The four-country point - where Russia, Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia meet.
• The kurgans - Pazyryk burial mounds, one of which held the frozen 1993 find.
• The quiet zone - UNESCO-linked restrictions on movement and activity.

When to go

July and August; the season is a few weeks and snow can fall in any month. A week. Border permits take weeks to obtain and are checked.

What to expect

Border zone permits are compulsory and refusal is common without a Russian sponsor or operator. Access is off-road only, hours from Kosh-Agach. No facilities, signal or rescue. The Ukok Princess remains a live dispute with Altai communities and deserves to be described as such, not as a curiosity.

Nearby

Kosh-Agach is the last town; the Chuya steppe and Kyzyl-Chin are north.

Key facts