Altai frozen tombs 7000BC - 2000BC

Citt at one of the stones Altai area Xianjian Province

Journal entry dated 4 September 2010
the day saw us leave our hotel The Tarum Petroleum Hotel en-route to Altay 
To visit the grass plains and the Kansa Lake in the Far North Western Corner of Xianjian Province.


Our flight was as always delayed and it was a single wing prop job. Which for us is great flying at about 10,000 feet gave us a birds eye view of the desert land crisscrossed with pipelines from the oil and gas rich area of Kazakhstan and Western China. 


Our arrival at Altay airport was the ultimate feeding frenzy for taxi drivers. 3 turned up  2 of these guys were straight out of the streets of New York, 


Aggressive greedy and to us not an option for our journey to the Lakes situated 4.5 hours drive from here.

Stones at Altai 7000BC - 2000BC

Round stones with a headstone Burial 7BC -2BC

We paid a driver to take us to Altai and in time we found a very helpful teacher (Cocco) to interpret for us until we struck a deal with Marc an ethnic Urgha (Weega) taxi driver we felt comfortable with.  But by now we only had about 2 hours of daylight and there was a long way to travel we had not booked accommodation and did not relly know  where we were going - so off we went. 


Along the way In the Altai Grassland in North Western China stand carved stone. 

Site just outside of Altai on the grass plains 7000BC- 2000BC

Carved stone statue protecting the burial place 7000BC 20000BC

Most of them are carved in Human likeness with clothes and distinguishing features. They are believed to be from the 7 BC - 2 BC they could be even earlier. Belonging to Turkic origin.
The stones of Altai are engraved course granite placed to protect grave yards and important places. 
Detailed archeological work has not been carried out but some stone coffins have been found and it is believed that precious articles and even the skeletons of Horses are buried with the owner. 
All the sites are protected.

However we marvel at how over the 7000 years  these stayed intact from marauding Mongols, Hans Turkic and who knows who else invaders.







Preservation of the Frozen Tombs of the Altai Mountains