Tour from Karaganda to Ulytau mountaains.

"The gallery created under the open sky by artists of a classical antiquity is surprising. The engravings cut on stones - the invaluable cultural heritage left in Kazakhstan from our far ancestors"

Academician A. H. Margulan.

Tour to town of Dzhezkazgan.

Zyngyrtas petroglyphs are located in the northern part of Aktasty Mountain 704 meters above sea level, in the western part of the Zhanalayak ridge, 15.8 kilometers (in a straight line) northeast of the village of Ulytau, 25.7 kilometers west of the village of Bostumsyk in Ulytau district of the Karaganda region.
In the northeast is the tract Besulgai. The name of the surroundings where the petroglyphs are located translates as Sounding. In windy weather, a faint ringing of bells can be heard from somewhere in the distance.
Petroglyphs are located on a country road on the crest of the meridional hill. The monument is an elongated from the northwest to the southeast is a ridge (dike) of boulders of medium size (0.4 x 2 m) with a length of 320 m.
This chain of boulders, located one after the other in almost the same line, is located at the top of the Zyngyrtas hill, which closes one of the spurs of the Ulytau mountains. The name of the hill is translated as “ringing stone”, which is associated with the peculiarity of the shale rocks that make up this dike of moraine outlier-boulders: when the stones are tapped against each other, a characteristic ringing sound is made.
Between groups of boulders with petroglyphs, mounds with stone embankments are “embedded” in the ridge. Mounds also close the ridge of boulders with images along its edges. In total, 6 mounds with stone embankments with a diameter of four to twelve meters and a height of 0.2 to 0.9 meters were recorded.
On one barrow of stones, a tall (up to 1.5 m) shepherd sign “ob” was laid out, the collapse of the other two “ob” was found on neighboring barrows. The consequence of the poor preservation of images was the fragmentation of many scenes and plots.
The figures are made by spot knocking in combination with polishing patina. Petroglyphs are located along the entire boulder surface that is convenient for knocking out. The overall level of patinization stones does not exceed PT-5, the images themselves - PT-4 (except stone 9).
The color of the boulders is dark gray, there are dark brown and black tones, occasionally a shiny blue-black crust of a deserted “tan” is noted. Multi-figure compositions with the participation of people, archers and animals: mountain sheep, horses, wild boars, camels, bulls are depicted.
There are figures of a horseman on a horse, scenes of an erotic nature, a “string” of animals and two masks (Novozhenov, 2002, pp. 34 - 35. In the vicinity there are light gray boulders on which rock paintings are depicted.
On the pictures you can see the image of a man, mountain goats , wild boar, horseman, wolf, bull, camel, snake and other images.
Geographic coordinates of the Zyngyrtas petroglyphs: N48 ° 44'49.81 "E67 ° 09'57.30"

Authority: 
M.V. Bedelbaeva, V.A. Novozhenov, N.V. Novozhenova. "Fine monuments of the Kazakh small hills". Karaganda State University named after academician E.A. Buketova. Saryarka Archaeological Institute. Karaganda. 2015. Alexander Petrov.

Photos
Alexander Petrov.