Тамгалы-Тас

Trail description

A short 0.5 km walk from the car park along the bank of the Ili to the rock carvings of Tamgaly-Tas, whose name means stones with signs. The Oirats who lived in the Ili valley in the 17th and 18th centuries carved large images of Buddhas, with Buddha Shakyamuni at the centre, and Tibetan prayer inscriptions on the riverside rocks. A stone with older Turkic runic writing of the 8th and 9th centuries stands among them, and the site is protected as an open-air Buddhist temple.

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