At Bashi region

The CBT guidebook to Kyrgyzstan states: "If Kyrgyzstan feels like the far side of the world, the end of the line, then At Bashy feels like the last stop".   

It is located 45 km from Naryn, 5km off the main road to Torugart after you pass over the Kyzyl-Bel pass (with views along the crest of the At-Bashi mountain range).  It is the last sizeable settlement before the Chinese border. 

According to official statistics, parts of the At Bashi region are the "remotest" in Kyrgyzstan.  An index is created based on distance from the capital, and other centres of local administration, (oblast, rayon, ayil-kenesh), which gives a value of between 1.0 (for easily accessible places) to 1.75.  The highest value for the country is 1.75 - in the At Bashi region.

The town stands on the site of settlements that date from the 8th to 14th centuries. 

At Bashi is Kyrgyz for "Horse's Head" and a picturesque Kyrgyz story tells how the town got its name.  A herder who had sold his cattle in the Andijan region (now in Uzbekistan) and on his return, exhausted, he settled down for the night at a place called Jailoo (= “pasture”) and turned his horse free. The horse wandered and fed at a place called Arpa (= “barley”).  When the man tried to coral the horse the next day it ran away. He chased it and when he caught it he killed it and cooked its meat. He left the head behind and called the place At-Bashi (= “Horses head”).  He ate the meat along his journey and called the place where he had his last meal from the carcass Naryn - which was the name of the dish he had cooked - a sort of soup with finely cut meat. If you find these places on the map you will see that they are quite far apart - the man went a long way to sell his cattle and chased the horse for quite a distance!

There is a Shepherd's Life group in the town which offers accommodation in homestays and other services.

 Nearby ruins of a small citadel at Kara-Suu dating from the 10th or 12th century.

Over the picturesque wooden bridge lies the village of Acha Kaindy - which is home to the craftswoman Janyl Alibekova who continues the age-old tradition of making felt carpets into which she creatively incorporates national motifs.  She never relied on anyone, least of all on the government and modern industrial technologies.  As history would have it, after the break-up of the Soviet Union and in a period of general economic decline, Janyl became famous in Europe, a star of the magazine Elle, and the director of her own workshop.  Yet she didn't change her lifestyle or her independent anti-patriarchal views.  In 2002, she was the subject of a short, (14 minute) documentary film: Red Butterflies Where Two Springs Merge. We can arrange visits to her home where she and her collective can demonstrate the traditional craft of making Shyrdaks and Ala Kiyiz. 

Further along the road to Torugart, the 5 metre high walls are known as Koshoy-Korgon and that is where the legendary Kyrgyz hero Manas is supposed to have buried his friend Koshoy. Just before the end of the asphalt, and the start of the gravel road - the highway widens and was an emergency military airstrip built in the Soviet period to be used in the event of hostilities with China (apparently it was never used and is poorly maintained today).

Further on is the Tash-Rabat caravanserai - an architectural monument from the Middle Ages. It is about 125 km from Naryn, and 80 km from Torugart border post, at an altitude of 3530m.  The road continues around the end of the At-Bashi mountains, past Chatyr-Kul lake to the border post.