Saymaluu-Tash petroglyphs want to digitize

The famous Saimalu-Tash petroglyphs may have digital copies. They are needed first of all in order to make their replicas, which can be seen in museums of the Kyrgyz Republic, without climbing high in the mountains.

Saimalu-Tash is a national natural park. It is located in the Jalal-Abad region near the village of Qazarman and is famous for its petroglyphs. Here, at an altitude of more than three thousand meters, they are estimated from ten to ninety thousand. The most ancient cave drawings are more than five thousand years old, scientists attribute them to the Neolithic and Bronze epoch. There are petroglyphs of the Scythian period and the Middle Ages.

It is not easy to see them personally - from the Barracks you need to come to the base camp Saimalu-Tash and from there 4 hours on horseback to get to the petroglyphs themselves - to the area, where even in summer there is almost no snow melting. This path was made by scientists of the National Academy of Sciences - historians, ethnographers, geologists - together with representatives of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Tourism Development Support Fund and of the other organizations. They took rock and water samples to analyze them from their own labs.

The trip to the petroglyphs was preceded by a large scientific conference. It discussed the need to include the Saimalu-Tash in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Its participants talked a lot about the need to preserve unique mountain paintings. At a minimum, cordon off the area where they are to prevent the appearance of animals. Another issue of concern to the experts is the tectonic fault that passes right here. The activity of rocks makes you think about the safety of petroglyphs. And the digitization of the stones, which was already partially completed in 2016, may be one of the solutions.