Khodjapil Dinosaur Plateau Fossil Hunting Guide

Introduction

The hardest site to reach in this directory is also one of the most concentrated. A tilted limestone surface in the Koytendag range of eastern Turkmenistan carries about 2,500 dinosaur footprints, and the largest measure roughly 70 by 60 centimetres.

Soviet palaeontologists documented the plateau in the 1950s. It has been known internationally ever since, but the practical difficulty of the journey has kept visitor numbers low.

The nearby village is called Khodja Pil, which translates as miracle of the elephants. That is what local tradition made of the prints before anyone described them as dinosaur tracks. It is a reasonable reading of a large rounded footprint in stone.

Read the access section before anything else on this page. The plateau sits in a border zone and cannot be visited on impulse.

Location and Directions

The plateau is near Khodja Pil village in the Koytendag range, Lebap Province, in the far east of Turkmenistan close to the Afghan and Uzbek borders.

GPS: 37.9336°N, 66.6294°E.

Travel to the border region requires a permit. Arrange it before you book anything else, because without it the journey cannot be made.

From Ashgabat the route runs by air to Turkmenabat, then roughly 450 kilometres south by road, which takes about eight hours on rough surfaces.

Turkmenistan additionally requires most foreign visitors to travel on a tourist visa with a state-approved guide, or on a transit visa with fixed conditions. Work through an established operator.

The plateau lies inside the Hojapil State Nature Sanctuary, part of the Köýtendag State Nature Reserve created in 1986. The same reserve holds Turkmenistan's highest mountain, Ayrybaba at 3,138 metres, along with caves, waterfalls and lakes. A nature reserve is a stricter regime than a national park, so treat the whole plateau as protected ground.

What Fossils You'll Find

Nothing is collectable. Touch nothing.

The tracks are the entire attraction. They run across a single large limestone bedding surface, now tilted, in long trackways that can be followed by eye across the slope.

Most are attributed to large theropods, although interpretations of Central Asian Jurassic trackways vary and treat the identifications as provisional rather than settled.

The prints are best read in low, raking light. In flat midday sun on dry rock they are far harder to pick out, which is the same problem visitors meet at Valentia and Goseong.

Geologic History

The tracks lie in the Upper Jurassic carbonates of the Kugitang Svita, broadly 160 to 155 million years old, laid down on a shallow marine platform.

A tidal flat or lagoon margin is the setting that produces a surface like this. Carbonate mud was exposed at low water, animals crossed it, the surface hardened, and the next sediment layer sealed the prints.

The Koytendag range is part of the broader Alpine-Himalayan belt. Collision between Eurasia and the plates to the south uplifted and tilted these rocks. That is why a former tidal flat now sits high on a mountainside at an angle.

Koytendag is worth understanding as a region rather than a single stop. The range holds Turkmenistan's highest peak, extensive cave systems including Kaptarhana, and the Umbar Dere waterfall. Any expedition that reaches the plateau will be covering the rest of it too.

Collecting Rules and Regulations

Collecting is prohibited. The plateau sits inside a state nature reserve, which is a stricter regime than a national park.

Do not walk on the track surface, and do not chalk, wet or trace the prints.

Turkmenistan restricts photography near border installations. Follow your guide's instructions on what may and may not be photographed.

Turkmenistan is one of the least visited countries in the world, and that shapes everything about a trip here. Independent travel is effectively impossible, itineraries are fixed in advance, and changes on the ground are difficult. Build slack into any plan that includes the plateau.

Safety

This is a remote border region with minimal infrastructure. Do not travel independently.

The plateau surface is steeply tilted, exposed and slippery in places. A fall here is serious, and help is far away.

Summer temperatures in the region are extreme, and there is no shade. Carry far more water than seems necessary.

Medical facilities are very limited. Travel insurance covering evacuation is a sensible precaution.

Mobile coverage is poor to absent.

Set expectations on numbers. This site sees far fewer foreign visitors than any other in this directory, and infrastructure reflects that. Treat a visit as an expedition rather than a day trip.

The plateau's tracks were studied in the Soviet period and again by an international team in 2013. Turkmenistan placed the site on its UNESCO tentative list in 2009. Attention has still been thin for a surface this size. That is a gap rather than a judgement: a surface with 2,500 prints would attract sustained work almost anywhere else. The palaeontology here is less resolved than the numbers suggest.

The range forms the western end of the Pamir-Alay system. It carries the country's only substantial forest cover and a set of endemic species. That is why it carries reserve protection independently of the tracks.

Sources

https://phys.org/news/2014-05-dinosaurs-turkmenistan-jurassic.html https://ayan-turkmenistan.travel/khodjapil-dinosaur-plateau.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_Plateau https://www.arabnews.com/news/564826