Another treasure of nature, located on the territory of the Altyn-Emil National Park and worthy of a separate page from the park, is Singing Dune. A delightful natural monument with a length of three kilometers and a height of one hundred and fifty meters lies between the two ridges of the Dzungarian Alatau - the Bolshoi and Maly Kalkan.
The phenomenality and feature of the natural monument lies in its name. In fact, the dune is able to “sing” and make a variety of sounds from a slight whistle to the sound similar to an organ or even a rumble.
To see this miracle of nature is worth every guest of the city of Almaty and near the surrounding areas, and the indigenous people, especially worth it at least once, but to visit and see with your own eyes is not the habit of the beauty of the dune and listen to his "song". Moreover, given the fact that Singing Dune was nominated in the contest "Seven New Natural Wonders."
The very miracle of nature was formed as a result of blowing sand, and not from anywhere, but from the shallows not without the well-known Kazakhstani Ili River. It is here that the wind blows, capable of raising river sand with a huge cloud and carrying it to the very place where the Singing Dune arose. But why did the sand decide to stay here? It’s all about the location, as we said above, the dune is located between the Bolshoi and Maly Kalkan, they, in turn, are located at a slight angle to each other, and a huge cloud of sand wind, falling into this “trap”, begins to weaken and “give "Sand.
What is the secret of this natural phenomenon, why does the dune sing and how can this be explained? This question was asked not only by you and me, back in 1962, a certain Leningrad physicist by the name of Arabaji dedicated his time to studying Singing Dune. As it turned out, the culprit of the “singing” turned out to be the friction of grains of sand against each other, and the variety of sounds depends on the mass of this sand, so in different weather conditions you can hear a thin squeak, then a “howling” organ or a frightening roar.
Of course, this phenomenon could not bypass the life of local residents and gave rise to many legends and myths in which the reasons for the appearance of the Singing Dune were told, we will tell you about two of them.
The first legend tells of a shaytan who wandered around the world and plotted people, cunning, deceiving and did not miss a single opportunity to do dirty tricks. And when the Almighty was tired of watching what the scoundrel was doing, he deprived him of the power to move to the desired places with lightning speed. Making his movement around the world similar to the movement of a mortal. Then the shaitan had to go to his house, located on the top of the mountain on foot. His path was difficult and winding, he wandered around the desert for a month, then the second, then completely lost count, and now tired and exhausted he collapsed to the ground and fell asleep plunged into deep oblivion. And still he sleeps a sound sleep, turning into a dune, and nothing can wake him neither rain, nor wind, nor the scorching sun. And only sometimes you hear how he begins to moan when they want to interfere with his sleep.
Another legend says that the dune hides the buried Genghis Khan and his combat associates. And the sand begins to “sing” at those moments when Genghis Khan tells his ancestors about his military merits and the more interesting and exciting his story, the more expressive the singing of the sands.
Such interesting legends and myths cover the “sand singer”, but not a single story can convey to you what you can see with your own eyes and hear yourself.
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