Petroglyphs Walking Tour in Tajikistan.

“I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers” 

Langston Hughes.

Excursions to Petroglyphs Tajikistan.

Petroglyphs of Nayzatash grotto the site is in the Murgab District of the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region, 45km south-west from the district capital city Murgab. A grotto with drawings is not far from the Nayazatash pass, at an altitude of 4,137m.
The site is known only from photos made by Seleznyov V.F. handed over to Ranov V.A. (Ranov 1995). The grotto is in a large limestone Jurassic rock. The drawings, painted on a rough surface with red mineral pigment, occupy a 2 х 1.5m area.
Their sizes do not exceed 12-15cm. Only six figures were preserved with some unidentified lines and spots. Two contour images of mountain goats (Capra sibirica Mayer) can be seen, and, possibly, a human, a sign in the shape of a closed figure (or incomplete image) and three short lines.
The Nayzatash paintings have no direct similarities among Pamirian petroglyphs; they are even difficult to compare with those at Ak-Chunkur in Kyrgyzstan, Akbaur in Kazakhstan, Zaraut-Kamar in Uzbekistan or even at the Kurteke overhang located in the vicinity.
Dating them to the Neolithic is provisional (Ranov 2001: 129 - 130).

Authority:
Bobomullo S. Bobomulloev.

Photos by
Surat Toymasov.