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Charyn Canyon in southeastern Kazakhstan has been ranked 17th in the Worldworthy 100: Canyons & Gorges 2026, making it the sole Central Asian entry in a list spanning 100 sites across 46 countries. Worldworthy awarded the canyon a score of 9.48 out of 10, drawing on traveller reviews, travel guidebooks and media coverage; the organisation lists 5,441 visitor reviews for Charyn, though the final placement is an editorial assessment rather than a public vote. Letchworth Gorge in New York State took first place overall; the Grand Canyon in the United States ranked fourth.
The recognition coincides with a dramatic surge in visitor numbers. Annual arrivals at Charyn rose from 16,105 in 2020 to 249,928 in 2025 — a fifteenfold increase over five years — and more than doubled from the 117,793 recorded in 2024 alone.
The canyon lies roughly 200 kilometres east of Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, and stretches 154 kilometres along the Charyn River. Its most photographed section, the Valley of Castles, is defined by reddish rock formations that resemble fortress walls, towers and palaces. Established in 2004, the national park covers approximately 127,000 hectares and also protects an ancient grove of Sogdian ash trees as well as gazelles and other rare wildlife.
Infrastructure built to manage the crowds
Authorities have responded to the visitor surge with a series of restrictions and investments. Private vehicles were banned from descending into the canyon in 2019. Since then the park has developed observation platforms, introduced dedicated visitor transportation and opened a visitor centre. In 2025, work began on widening the road at the main checkpoint to ease congestion.
Environmentalists have nonetheless warned that heavy tourist traffic is damaging vegetation and contributing to litter and other environmental problems across Kazakhstan’s protected areas, including Charyn. The park is not alone in facing such pressures: other national parks near major Kazakh cities are also struggling with excessive visitor numbers, according to the source report.
A gateway to a broader mountain circuit
Charyn is frequently visited as part of a wider itinerary in the northern Tian Shan Mountains. Travellers often combine the canyon with the Kolsai Lakes and Lake Kaindy, the latter known for a submerged spruce forest created when an earthquake-triggered landslide blocked a mountain gorge; the trunks of the drowned trees still protrude above the water’s surface.
Kazakhstan has been actively developing tourism infrastructure in its mountain regions, around its lakes and along the Caspian Sea coast as it seeks to attract more international visitors. Charyn’s entry into the Worldworthy top 20 provides a measurable benchmark for that effort, even as park managers grapple with the environmental costs of the growth they have achieved.