Petroglyphs “Bayan-Zhurek”

Petroglyphs “Bayan-Zhurek” are rock carvings 25 km from the village of Kapal, Aksu district, Zhetysu region. In 1993, they were investigated by the International Kazakh-French archaeological expedition led by 3. Samashev. Single images and complex compositions reflect the life, beliefs and worldview of the tribes and peoples that inhabited these areas from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages. In one of the drawings there is a figure of a man with a hand raised up, a triangular head is framed by 7 rays emanating in different directions. Perhaps this is a special headdress decorated with various signs of the senders of religious rites or a character equated to god. Samples of such headdresses are found in the drawings painted on the walls of stone cists with burials dating back to the Eneolithic period of the Karakul mounds of the Altai Mountains, at the archaeological sites of the Okunev culture of Siberia, the Samus culture and the Andronovo, Karasuk cultures of the Paleometal era that are parallel or replaced them. Among the drawings there are many images of warrior-riders of the ancient Turkic period, some of the plots belong to the Hun-Sarmatian period.

The Bayan-Zhurek complex has about 2500 drawings in six groups located along the first two kilometers of the ridge at altitudes from 1600 to 1800 meters.