Paltau Valley and Waterfall

The valley

The Paltau is a mountain stream in Bostanliq District and a right-bank tributary of the Chatkal. In late spring and early summer, when the water is high, it flows straight into Lake Charvak. It rises on the spurs of the Koksu Range close to the Kyrgyz border, runs south-west and joins the Chatkal two kilometres above the road bridge near Obirakhmat.

The slopes carry mixed forest, birch groves, fruit trees and berry bushes, the valley floor is carpeted with flowers and medicinal herbs, and mushrooms are plentiful in summer. Water levels peak in April and May. About 4 km above the mouth the stream turns sharply and drops over a waterfall among the rocks, the valley’s best-known sight.

Traces of the past

The Obi-Rakhmat grotto, once used by Neanderthals, lies on the right bank. On a terrace 10 km upstream archaeologists found the Dodekatym-1 and Dodekatym-2 sites, dated to 23,000–21,000 years ago. In the 1930s and 1940s prospectors drove exploration adits into the cliffs and found fluorite, but mining it proved unprofitable.

Access

Because the valley is close to the state border, a special permit is reported to be required. In Soviet times hiking routes to the Koksu, Kulasya and other gorges ran through the Paltau; the easiest led to the Kulasya valley.