Sunrise and sunset viewing
Watching the colour of Uluru and Kata Tjuta change is truly spectacular. At sunrise, the giant monoliths emerge from the inky landscape, changing from purple through to rusty browns and red in the golden sunlight. Sunsets can be particularly spectacular when the sun sinks through cloud formations.
The colour changes result from the effects of the earth's atmosphere on the sun's incoming rays. The ash, dust particles and water vapour present in the earth's atmosphere act as a filter which can remove the bluer light from the incoming rays of the sun, allowing the redder light through at different times of day. Reflections from the rock and clouds in the sky enhance the vivid colours.
There are specific parking areas constructed at the best locations to view and photograph the sunrise and sunset at Uluru and Kata Tjuta. See our sunset and sunrise maps and guide.
Traditional Inma ceremony at the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku opening celebrations
Talinguru Nyakunytjaku | new viewing area
Talinguru Nyakunytjaku simply translated means 'to look from the sand dunes'
Talinguru Nyakunytjaku offers visitors stunning new views of both Uluru and Kata Tjuta from a previously inaccessible area of the park. The area allows visitors to see Uluru and Kata Tjuta in the wider desert landscape of spinifex covered dunes and swales, dotted with kurkura or desert oaks.
The area provides several viewing platforms and a network of wheelchair accessible walking tracks dotted with spinifex thatched shade shelters modelled on wiltja, the traditional Anangu shelter. There are toilet facilities, solar powered wayfinder lighting and a performance area.
From the upper platforms of Talinguru Nyakunytjaku it is possible to see out across open wanari or mulga woodlands to patches of muurmuurpa or desert bloodwood woodland fed by Uluru's rocky catchment. In Uluru's clear light, you can often see landmarks more than 100 kilometres away, including the Musgrave Ranges in South Australia.
The new road to the viewing area provides a wonderful tourist drive through desert oak and mulga forest and takes visitors through new areas of the landscape.
Talinguru Nyakunytjaku will create new business opportunities for Aboriginal people and the tourism industry.
Sunset and sunrise maps and guide | Talinguru Nyakunytjaku guide
