Assy Plateau

The Assy Plateau is a high-altitude steppe at around 2,600 metres — a summer pasture (jailau) where herders still graze horses and pitch yurts. By day it is endless rolling hills under a vast sky; by night it is one of the best stargazing spots near Almaty, with the Assy-Turgen Astrophysical Observatory standing above the plateau. The road up is a series of switchbacks with dirt sections, open roughly May to October; in winter the plateau is snowed in. We climb in a purpose-built 4x4, show the observatory and nomadic life, and stay for sunset and the Milky Way. Assy is about space, silence and a night sky you’ll never see from the city.