Kata Tjuta

Kata Tjuta

The Kata Tjuta ( the Olgas ) are a group of 36 mountains in central Australia about 51 kilometers from the town of Yulara. Together with the 30 kilometers away, Uluru (Ayers Rock), they are surrounded by the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park -. The highest with 1069 m meters of rock, Mount Olga, protrudes 564 meters from the environment.

Name and history of discovery

The Kata Tjuta were nominated by their European explorers Ernest Giles on October 21, 1872 after Queen Olga of Württemberg The Olgas. Giles, on the way to Lake Amadeus to his sponsors, the Spanish King Amadeus and Olga of Württemberg felt obliged.

The name Mount Olga was officially changed on 15 December 1993 in Mount Olga / Kata Tjuta and on 6 November 2002, he was set up by the local Tourism Association in Alice Springs on 6 November 2002 in Kata Tjuta / Mount Olga.

The name Kata Tjuta was noted as Kartuta and as Cutta Toota in early Australian maps. Kata Tjuta includes the words of the tribe of the Anangu Aboriginal people to Kata Tjuta for the head and for many and therefore the name means many heads, which describes well the mountain.

Geology

The Kata Tjuta have arisen with the Uluru at the same time about 550 million years ago. The Kata Tjuta are part of an underground layer of rock that emerged in erosion processes in a sedimentary basin, the Amadeus Basin.

The mountain tops are at the southern edge of the Amadeus Basin, which was formed about 900 million years. In this basin were deposited over hundreds of millions of years away from sediment layers. After about 300 million years ago stopped this process and there was a shallow lake. The lake dried up and were formed salt crusts. This was followed by a cold period. The older sediments of the Amadeus Basin were folded and bent; Land was pushed up and it formed mountains. The mountain landscape was subject to the processes of erosion and formed large masses of Schwemmlandablagerungen at the foot of the mountains. In the end, both the Uluru Kata Tjuta and the product of these deposition processes, and they emerged at the same time about 550 million years ago.

500 million years ago again a shallow lake covered this area in which sediments were deposited and compacted and cemented these coarse gravels of the Kata Tjuta on conglomerate. Another folding took place, which raised up above the lake level and caused the orogeny of Alice Springs, while the layer of Kata Tjuta conglomerate 15 to 20 ° was mounted to the horizontal. 65 million years, formed a broad valley between Uluru and Kata Tjuta, this was filled with river sands and coal deposits. During this time there was a rainy climate and during the last 500,000 years the climate dry and a thin carpet of sand was overlaid the sediment layers.

Tourist information

The Kata Tjuta are owned by the Anangu. Since, according to their mythology, the Kata Tjuta are connected with the Dreamtime, the Anangu use it as a place for rituals. For this reason, the entrance for tourists is limited.

A hiking trail in the Valley of the Winds is open to the public, you go depending on walking speed for three to five hours. This path is locked but on hot days from 36 ° C to protect the visitors. On the trail there are two view points and at one point only drinking water, so the takeaway is recommended by sufficient drinking water.

Another short trail leads from the visitor parking lot as a dead end into a notch, the Walpa Gorge, between two " heads "; the round trip takes about 1 hour

At the visitor's parking, there is no camp site. Visitors must leave the premises in the evening. From Kata Tjuta Dune Viewing Area from one can consider the Kata Tjuta at sunrise and sunset. Due to the reflection of sunlight, the mountains appear gray to brown or red colored, this also depends on the position of the sun and the composition of the atmosphere ( haze, dust particles, etc. ).

The Kata Tjuta are with vehicles on the tarmac Lasseter Highway, which branches off from the Stuart Highway passing via the Uluru, accessible.