Great Silk Road in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

«Memory is the treasure house of the mind wherein the monuments thereof are kept and preserved»

Thomas Fuller.

In the Pamir Mountains Tours.

Petroglyphs Kuruksai is located in the Altyn-Topkan ridge, the western part of the Kuraminsky ridge, in the Matchinsky district of the Sogd region, near the border of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Description of the Site Kuruksay is in the western part of the Kuramin Mountains, near the border of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The exact number of drawings is unknown. Images were engraved on separate large fragments of limestone rocks or vertical surfaces in the forked chain of spurs representing the end of the Kuramin Range.
Petroglyphs are on the southern slopes of these spurs, on surfaces covered with a dense desert patina.
Several degrees of patination for the drawings indicate different periods for the images. They are scattered among burial constructions (mug-khona) in small groups of 2 - 3 images and also higher up the valley.
Pecking is common; in some cases drawings were abraded, sometimes the contour of images was incised with a sharp metal tool.
The earliest images include goats, sometimes several on one stone, with a figure of a goat with big horns standing out. The second group comprises an image of a goat suddenly stopping. There are images of fox or wolf, goitered gazelle, and leopard.
There is also a scene of an archer hunting goats with a dog. These figures belong to the Early Iron Age. On a separate stone, there is a scene of two knights fighting with spears dated to the Early Middle Ages (VIIth century AD).
Research Status The petroglyphs were discovered and studied in 1960 by Ranov.

Authority:
Bobomullo S. Bobomulloev.

Photos by
Surat Toymasov.