Tamgaly petroglyphs private guided tour

Tour distance by car: 360 km

 Tamgaly petroglyphs were discovered in 1957 by a great archaeologist Anna Maximova. The history of the Tamgaly petroglyphs of the Bronze Age was published in 1958 in the national scientific journal "Journal of Science". Later the Tamgaly rock carvings were explored by the famous archaeologists Samashev, Maryashev and Rogozhin.

 The archaeologist Alex Rogozhin set the period of application of the petroglyphs on the results of his research. He concluded that the time of petroglyphs was covering several time periods, ranging from the Bronze Age to the XIII-XIV centuries AD. He also tried to comprehend the significance of the petroglyphs in comparison with the images from the legend about the famous Oghuz Khagan. 

 In the Tamgaly in the fourth group there is the so-called 118-I plane, whose length is six meters and height is four meters. In the plane there are shown different drawings: six head creature with the torso of a man. Now compare these petroglyphs describing images of the six sons of Oghuz Khagan. The first son of Oghuz Khagan was named after the sun and the first petroglyphs depict a man over the head of whose there are the rays of the sun. Consequently this is the figure of the first son of Oghuz Khagan the sun. The second petroglyphs depict a man whose head was consistent with a picture of the full moon, therefore, these petroglyphs depicted the second son of Oghuz Khagan the moon. On the third petroglyphs there is a little star on the man's head, therefore, the third son of Oghuz Khagan the star. The fourth petroglyphs depict a man whose head matches the character of the sky, respectively, the fourth son of Oghuz Khagan the heaven. The head of the fifth person on the petroglyphs is round that probably means "high", therefore, these petroglyphs depicted one more son of Oghuz Khagan Horus. The sixth petroglyphs depict a man whose head is inclined like a sea, hence, the figure shows the sixth son of Oghuz Khagan the sea.

 Below these figures one can see the images of the 12 dancing people and the legend says that Oghuz Khagan divided his territory into 12 zones, therefore, in the Tamgaly there are 12 dancing people and maybe they embody these 12 zones.

 In the legend about Oghuz Khagan there is a description of Oghuz Khagan: "He was strong as a bull and huge as a bear, his whole body was covered with hair. If we compare this description to the petroglyphs we'll see that some similarities completely match the description of Oghuz Khagan and therefore we can assume that the petroglyphs depict Oghuz Khagan himself. The mother's name of Oghuz Khagan was Ai Khagan. At the Tamgaly petroglyphs there is an image of Ai Khagan. These petroglyphs were discovered and restored by the archaeologist Rogozhin. Among the Tamgaly petroglyphs there is only one image of a woman in the whole growth and one more image of a woman giving birth to her child, respectively, according to the legend one woman is the mother of Oghuz Khagan and the second one is his wife.

 Now consider the image of a gray wolf who was the leader of the troops of Oghuz Khagan in his war campaigns. At the Tamgaly there are two petroglyphs depicting a wolf and a horseman with a banner. According to the archaeologists the time of creating of one of them belongs to the Middle Ages. These rock carvings are known to many people as the banner «jigit».

 The petroglyphs with a wolf were found at the time of documenting the rock carvings at the Tamgaly in 2005. They show a gray wolf with a man having a spear in his hand. And if you follow the legend about Oghuz Khagan you will find that the gray wolf was a young man who showed the way to the troops carrying the flag at the head of the troops and pointing them the right way.

 Also it’s possible to say that if the story about Oghuz Khagan is depicted at the Tamgaly that probably means he grew up in that area. And of course, this horseman grew brave because the she-wolf suckled him with her milk and educated him as well. That can assume us that the way was shown to the troops of Oghuz Khagan by that brave young rider who didn't ride on a horseback but on the wolf's.

 It is well known that the runic alphabets are related to the ancestors of the Kazakh people, evidenced by the Orkhon monuments. At the Tamgaly there are some runic inscriptions, the inscription of five letters in the fourth group. If you read it in accordance with the 13 options of the runic alphabet which was approved by the world scientists then you get the word "nerel" or "naret. We can assume that it was the appeal of Oghuz Khagan to his descendants and his people. Here the word "naret" means "abundance", therefore, on the rock carvings he wanted to wish wealth to his people.
 

NOTES:

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