Hakloot

Finding the rock carvings at Eshkiolmes

On Sunday, 30 August I went back to look for the rock carvings, the petroglyphs as they are called here, at Eshkiolmes where I had been two weeks ago coming back empty handed. Eshkiolmes about 280km north east of Almaty near the city of Taldykorgan. This time I went with an expert guide, Misha, from the archeology department in Almaty. When we eventually got the Eshkiolmes I realized that two
weeks back I had only narrowly missed the carvings. I had simply not climbed high enough.

This time I did not have to prepare the route on GPS as I could rely on the expert knowledge of Misha who’s also a
cartography expert. So off we went in good hands. You can find a copy of the actual route on Wikiloc

The first location Misha took us to was just outside the northern city limits of Taldy-kurgan. There we saw on the hills in the fields what look like rows of walls of black rock.

We saw plenty of rock carvings in row upon row of black rock. Most carvings would depict the mountain goat and sometimes with archers next to it. We also see depictions of camels snakes and deer.

From this high ground one has a beautiful panorama view of the valley and Taldy-kurgan. Closer by in the fields below one could notice several small humps in the fields which are reckoned to be old burial places. I would never have noticed it or paid attention to it. But once explained by Misha it became obvious and easy to recognize many more.

From there we drove to Eshkiolmes, in all about 50km away. As we had been there just two weeks ago we didn’t need directions but we were in need of knowing where to look for the carvings. And this time we found them. Yet we had to climb high up. but it was worth it. The quality and quantity of carvings was very impressive. Again lost of deer and goats. but this time also a peculiar drawing of dancers with spears and animals around.

The views from high up were breathtaking. No surprise that these graffiti artists of old like to be high up there and got inspired to leave art behind based on what they observed and what they did in their lives.

Here too we stumbled onto burial places. As the terrain was different so was the make-up of the graves. The graves here were basically heaps of rock. Rocks which are abundantly available as they keep crumbling down from the hills. These otherwise unmarked graves have lied here undisturbed for many hundreds of years. Again, once aware of what to look for they become easily recognizable.

After checking our first grouping of petroglyphs we moved a few kilometers up along the Koksu river and the high hills with black faced rock to look for another grouping of carvings. The climb here was much steeper than in the first locations and more tricky as we had to climb up and down on lose rocks with the danger of creating an avalanche of rocks in the worst case or even simply twisting your ankle or tumbling down the steep side of the hills. But the climb up was worth it again for the richness in carvings spread over a wide area.

Last Updated: 31-08-2009



Copyright © 2012 Hans Dewaele – All rights reserved

Karaganda and Astana

This week I traveled to Central Kazakhstan to visit the cities of Karaganda and Astana, the capital, for business. It was my first visit to Karaganda while I have previously been to Astana.

I went with a colleague from the office and we started off on Tuesday from Almaty with Air Astana for a two hours twenty minutes flight to Karaganda. It wasn’t exactly a pleasure excursion. Air Astana has the wisdom to put passengers in a Fokker 50 aircraft packed like sardines in seats that barely fit a 12 year old to fly you 900km to your next destination. 380km/h average speed isn’t exactly fast.

Karaganda is one of the major cities of Kazakhstan. It’s the coal and mining capital of the country. Already during the Soviet days it was an important industrial base. And of course it looks like another typical Soviet city from a lay out and architecture standpoint. The Soviets new how the deign the most boring cities. Karaganda doe come across as a neat town and definitely not run-down as many other places.

Astana, the new capital of Kazakhstan is architecturally very refreshing compared to the surrounding Soviet designs in the country. The new city center has a large collection of rather impressive office and residential buildings. One such building is the Ministry of Transport and Communications, locally referred to as “the Lighter” as the building looks like cigarette lighter with the spire on the top and had to be partially rebuilt once due to a fire.

The lay out of the new government buildings dominated capital center is well balanced and pleasing to the eye, and almost each structure is a marvel in itself. Yet because it’s all so very new and modern it does leave a feeling of being a bit artificial and Disney World like, more so as one does not see too many people waling about.

The KazMunaiGaz head office building is an interesting almost circular design with a large portal like opening reminiscent of some of the grander 1930′s Soviet designs. Behind it one can see a new marvel by the famous architect Sir Norman Foster, the Khan Shatyry entertainment center looking like a giant transparent nomad tent which amongst others will feature a year round Mediterranean climate inside. That will be a welcome change for Astana citizens for whom winter temperatures can reach minus 40 C.

Last Updated: 28-08-2009



Copyright © 2012 Hans Dewaele – All rights reserved

Searching for rock carvings at Eshkiolmes

On Sunday, 16 August I went of to look for rock carvings, petroglyphs as they are called here, at a location called Eshkiolmes about 280km north east of Almaty near the city of Taldykorgan.

This is not a location that has signposts to it. So I first had to find the GPS coordinates, look for a suitable route on Google Earth and then transfer via few more steps the coordinates to my Garmin Oregon. However, to my despair I found out a few kilometers before the end point that not the entire route as I had plotted it was on the GPS. I learned the hard way that there is a maximum of 250 route points on any route one prepares. Luckily I had made some prints of the Google Earth pictures of the location we were heading too. This was good enough to get us in the neighborhood. You can find the route on Wikiloc

I had learned about this location from some references in some guide books and eventually found out the site is on the “Tentative Lists” of the UNESCO World Heritage List list. So just on the basis of this reference it should be worth a visit. The Eshkiolmes mountain range, a 30 km long western spur of the Dzungar Alatau system on the north of the Koksu river, houses numerous archaeological objects from Late Bronze to Middle Ages. The main group is located in the middle part of the valley: settlements, burials and petroglyphs of Late Bronze and Early Iron epochs belonging to the same cultural complex. The petroglyphs are the most remarkable remains: more than 4000 well preserved engravings spanning from the very beginning of the nomadic society to the Middle Ages.

I spent a lot of time there but since I had missed the correct GPS coordinates I ended up asking for directions and found out afterwords that I went looking in the wrong area, upstream of the Koksu river. The river itself is a beautiful site as it comes out of the mountains from between high rock wals to end up in the valley providing for fertile agricultursal land. No wonder it must have attracted people millenia earlier.

I did go “hunting” for petroglyphs up some waterless valleys but came away empty handed, except for some beautiful views of the underlying valley. I climber up the dry bed of the stream through the undergrowth to get as near as apossible to the black faced rocks which could have served as a surface for carvings but to find none.

Nevertheless it was a good opportunity to take in the pastoral life in Kazakhstan centered around the herding of animals which find rich ffeding in these valleys. So sheep and goats were plentiful looked after by the traditional horse riding herders.

The views were breathtaking and I shall be back this time with the right coordinates taking me to the exact spot where I can find those magnificent petroglyps of which Kazakhstan has so many in many different sites.

Last Updated: 18-08-2009



Copyright © 2012 Hans Dewaele – All rights reserved