The Tamgaly Tas

Route thread: Almaty – Tamgaly Tas tract.

Route description:

The Tamgaly Tas tract is 120 kilometers from Almaty. You should move north along the Kapshagai highway. After Konaev city and the bridge over the Ili River, at the Taldykorgan – Bakanas fork in the road, turn left and move until the "Polygon" sign. Around 3 kilometers later, you will reach the huge cliffs of Tamgaly Tas. The rocks are interesting because they have ancient Turkic runic writing from the 8th-9th centuries and images of the Hindu deity Buddha from the 14th-16th centuries. It’s assumed that the drawings were left by Turkic people who practiced Buddhism. In Semirechye (Zhetysu), this religion spread during the development of the Great Silk Road.

Tamgaly Tas means "stones with signs" in Kazakh. This place was a shrine for Buddhists.

One of the main attractions of the tract is rock paintings, including images of three Buddhas, each of which is almost human height.