Audio tour Hall 3. Sacred places

We are in the hall "Sacred places of East Kazakhstan region".

The First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev was assigned the task of implementing the project “Spiritual Shrines of Kazakhstan” or “Sacred Geography of Kazakhstan”.

 The Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev noted that sacred geography is a framework of national identity. Spiritual heritage of ancestors is a priceless gift and the real treasure came down to us from the depths of the centuries. Ancient poets dedicated poems and legends to their native land, singing of snowy mountain peaks and freedom of the steppe, clear lakes, and caves full of legends.

 With deep reverence and respect for their past, people carefully carried in their collective memory the places associated with historical events and personalities who left their mark in our history. Thanks to this, despite the years and bitter pages of history, today preserved holy places form a sacred geography of the country. Almost every of them can tell us myths, legends or tales which roots go back in both deep old and modern times.

 Since May 2017 the work on defining and collecting materials on sacred objects in Kazakhstan has been started.

 The result of the work is the books "National Sacred Objects of Kazakhstan" and "Regional sacred objects of Kazakhstan ". The first book included 185 sacral objects, 13 of which are on the territory of the East Kazakhstan region. 500 sacred places presented in the second book, including 25 objects of our area. Sacred objects are divided into 5 groups:

- Most treasured natural heritage monuments

- Archaeological sites and medieval city centers

- Religious objects that are places of worship

- Sacred places associated with historical personalities

- Sacred places associated with historical and political events

 Most treasured natural heritage monuments of East Kazakhstan, included in the List of National Sacred Objects are:

- Belukha Mountain

- Lake Alakol

- Konyr aulie cave in the Aktas mountain.

 Due to geographic position the region always has played an important role in the historical development of the tribes of Western Asia. In the Eastern region of Kazakhstan, the brightest sacred objects are historical and archaeological complexes Shilikty and Berel.

 On table lands there are located hundreds of mounds from the beginning of the I millenium BC. The main work was carried out in 2018 in the mound number 4 and made a sensation in archaeological science not only in Kazakhstan, but in the world community.

 The burial chamber, built of logs, was placed at the level of ancient surface and had a trapezoidal shape. Ground structure of the mound over the entire circle was held by a powerful fence, which possibly had religious and magical protective function, as evidenced by a huge number of hidden jewelry of men's and women's suits. The findings in the fence are figures of predatory animals made of leaf gold, birds of prey stripes, thousands of beads to decorate pants and boots, beads made of ornamental stones.

 The Berel necropolis of IV-III centuries BC is the burial place of nobles and leaders of one of the peoples of ancient Kazakhstan. The valley where the mounds are located, significantly dominates over the area and surrounded by high mountains. The ancient inhabitants of the Berel Valley built tombs for their rulers in which embalmed bodies remained indecomposable for a long time. They also had the experience of forming a ever frost lens in a burial chamber.

 The Shilikty necropolis is located in a valley surrounded by mountains. It is truly great valley, there are more than 200 burial mounds - huge mounds, under which in log houses were buried in the VIII-VI centuries BC ruling elite dressed in "golden clothes". The first mound was excavated in 1960, where 524 gold objects were found with images of eagles, griffins, fish, boar, predator of the cat family. Exactly there the golden "flying deer" was discovered - an exceptional example of Scythian-Saka art.