The Arkalan petroglyph park will
appear in Kazakhstan. It will be the first of its kind not only in the country
but also in Central Asia. The park will be located in the Almaty Botanical
Garden, covering an area of 2,600 square meters. It will feature a gallery of
copies of Turkic rock carvings by domestic artists and sculptors with Kazakhstan’s
vast steppes in the background. According to the organizers, the petroglyphs
will closely resemble the originals. The work on creation of the park commenced
more than a year ago, with the official opening of the first phase scheduled
for the end of September. The work will continue into next year.
«We aimed to recreate the world
of the Turks, depicting objects and images that were significant to our
ancestors. The park will feature a world tree, a magical spring, a sacrificial
stone, a stele with all Kazakh tamgas engraved on it, and a stele dedicated to
the great ancestors. There will also be the foundation of a Turkic dwelling,»
said Olga Gumirova, executive director of the Petroglyph Hunters Foundation.
At the third National Kurultai, President
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev noted that Kazakhstan is rightly called the «country of petroglyphs»
and emphasized the need to protect these unique historical sites. Notably,
there are about 300 major known clusters of rock art and hundreds of smaller
ones in the country. Archaeologists discover new petroglyphs every year.
