Did you know this country holds the world’s largest natural walnut forest?
Some of the trees have been growing for almost 1,000 years, and yet they still bear fruits.
Hidden in the mountains of Central Asia, there is a prehistoric sanctuary covering more than 11,000 hectares of ancient walnut trees. This forest has been considered as the cradle of walnut cultivation, from which all local varieties of the world have come. Alexander the Great has been reported to have tasted the local crop and introduced the so-called Greek nuts to Europe.
Some of the trees have been growing for almost 1,000 years, and yet they still bear fruits. The plants stretch for a long way in a wide, silent belt of eternity. Travelers can hike through these woods, sleep in local villages, and witness a harvest tradition that has remained the same for millennia. Such an experience is possible in Kyrgyzstan only, a land which offers a rare escape into a living museum of botanical history.
