Just a short drive from Ayers Rock Airport, are both Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Yulara (Ayers Rock Resort), the setting for a cluster of hotels, shops and restaurants that form the Northern Territory’s fourth largest settlement when occupied. Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park is home to an abundance of wildlife and Uluru and Kata Tjuta, two fascinating rock formations that were created around 55 million years ago when much of central Australia was covered by an ocean.
Kata Tjuta is a striking group of domed rocks that cluster together to form small valleys and gorges. 30 kilometres to the east is Uluru the world’s second largest monolith, measuring over 9 kilometres around the base, and rising 348 metres above the mulga plain. Named Uluru by the Aborigines, it is a sacred monument to them, and the walls of the caves which honeycomb the base are covered in Aboriginal carvings and paintings, many of which are thousands of years old. Both Kata Tjuta and Uluru are estimated to continue around 5-6 kilometres underground, making the visible rock just the tip of each formation.