Out of TownOut of TownPhoto: Staranya, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Buyratau is not mountains in the Almaty sense, but low granite hills and rocky outcrops that look as if they were sculpted by hand, scattered among steppe and forest; the name from Kazakh means 'curly mountains' — because of the shadows that fall on the 'curly' forest-covered slopes at dawn and sunset. The park has five tourist trails, and the main attraction for those traveling with children is an enclosure covering 400 hectares, one of the largest in Central Kazakhstan, where maral, bison, and roe deer live.
The National Park was established on March 11, 2011, based on the earlier Buyratau nature park and two zoological reserves. The territory covers almost 89 thousand hectares in the Ereymentau District of Akmola Region. More than 600 plant species grow here, including the rare for Kazakhstan relict black alder, which has been preserved in the Karaagas gorge and the Ereymentau mountains since the Ice Age.