Chara Sands – The Freezing Desert of Siberia



Chara Sands is a truly amazing place. It’s like a real desert, but with features you won't see anywhere else except in Trans-Baikal. Cold blue icing right next to warm yellow sand; instead of camels, a reindeer caravan treads across the sands, tended by an Evenk driver. You might stumble upon an oasis among the sand ridges where palms gave way to northern larches. The desert is surrounded by mountains covered with snow even during the summer; the dunes run into bogs or lakes.


Just 40 kilometers from the Kodar Glaciers in Kalar district of Trans-Baikal region, right next to the snow-capped mountains and the limitless sea of taiga spotted with blue lakes and huge ice fields, lies a bright yellow spot – the Chara Sands. This sand dune is approximately 10 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide; some of the dunes are as high as 15 – 30 meters. The terrain here is so pronounced it almost looks like a real desert. Nowhere else in the entire tundra such large volume of loose shifting sands can be found. Against the backdrop of the cold mountains, the Chara Sands is an extraordinary sight.



Chara Sands Desert Siberia