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Tourists explore the dinosaur plateau - Photo: travelnotoria
The Dinosaur Plateau, with hundreds of fossilized footprints of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs dating back 150 million years, is considered the highlight of the Kugitang Nature Reserve in Lebanon, located in the western part of the Kugitang Mountains (known as Koyentag in Turkmenistan).
This area is considered unique for its collection of fossil remains of some of the most bizarre dinosaur species on Earth. Soviet paleontologists discovered this dinosaur fossil collection in the 1950s. And now, the remaining fossils of Megalosaurus dinosaurs from the Jurassic period here continue to attract visitors.
Aman, a 35-year-old resident of Khoja Pil village at the foot of Dinosaur Plateau, often proudly tells tourists: "Director Steven Spielberg made the movie."Dinosaur Park(Jurassic Park) is here. The dinosaur tracks in the movie are real, not computer-generated!
Nearly 2,500 dinosaur fossils have been discovered in Kugitang. Among them, most visitors enjoy measuring some dinosaur footprints that are 40cm long and 30cm wide, and are amazed by fossil footprints up to 70cm long and 60cm wide, or the trail of a prehistoric dinosaur's strides that spanned up to 200m...
A fossilized dinosaur footprint in the Kugitang dinosaur plateau - Photo: AFP
Twenty years after the Soviet era, Turkmenistan, one of the 15 republics of the former Soviet Union, remains one of the most isolated countries. Therefore, in recent times, the majority of tourists visiting the dinosaur plateau have been locals.
Gulya, a local tourist living in Turkmenabat, said she felt as if dinosaurs were still nearby. Upon arriving in the Kugitang region, she felt like she "saw" dinosaurs walking in the distance!
Currently, to visit the Dinosaur Plateau (located near the border with Afghanistan and Uzbekistan), tourists must obtain a special permit. From the capital Ashgabat, tourists must take a domestic flight to Turkmenistan. Then, they must travel by car for about eight hours along a bumpy road of approximately 450km to reach the million-year-old remains of the legendary dinosaurs.
Because the plateau lies within Kugitang National Park, home to Mount Airybaba, the highest mountain in Turkmenistan, visitors also have the opportunity to explore the area's waterfalls, lakes, and caves.
The Turkmen government hopes that the Kugitang plateau, the only place in the world with the most accurate traces of dinosaur species as well as a vast amount of dinosaur fossils found nowhere else in the world, will become a major tourist destination for the country.
