Sarmysh Gorge

Near the city of Navoi is the Sarmysh gorge, a section of the Bukantau mountain range. In the late eighties of the last century, rumors spread from this region that unidentified flying objects had been observed in the Sarmysh gorge.
A scientific expedition immediately flew to the scene. Researchers of the unknown have done a lot of painstaking work here, but no remnants of crashed UFOs have been found.

However, the expedition was not completely unsuccessful. Scientists have discovered many ancient rock carvings in the Sarmysh gorge. Some of these drawings were very unusual. They depict people who look like aliens in strange outfits resembling spacesuits. 

The researchers suggest that the drawings are ten to fifteen thousand years old. Scientists have already found something similar in mountain caves in China and Spain. But there are nowhere such a large number of rock paintings as in the Sarmysh gorge. This gorge has been recognized by the scientific world as the largest stone art gallery on Earth. There are about four thousand petroglyphs on the two-kilometer-long territory, which are embossed on black slate. The first petroglyphs were created during the Neolithic period, and the youngest date back to the Middle Ages.

The Sarmysh Gorge is located in the Karatau mountain range between the cities of Navoi and Nurata near the Kara-Karga mountain pass. Just the sight of the mysterious and majestic mountain range promises even the most experienced traveler to encounter a mystery.
The birth of this culture occurred presumably at the turn of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.

The successful development of this civilization was facilitated by favorable natural conditions. The deep mountain rivers attracted many wild animals from the desert to their shores. Therefore, the local ancient people had no problems with hunting. Mountain goats, mouflons, bulls, and deer were the constant prey of hunters. And the abundance of caves, which could easily be adapted for winter habitation, helped the ancient people gradually move from a nomadic lifestyle to a settled one. They began to develop agriculture and learned how to process metals. In a word, they lived comfortably.

All the rock carvings found in the Sarmysh gorge differ in their storylines, styles and techniques of execution.

Some of the petroglyphs were painted using ocher, which was ground with fat. And some were beaten out, perhaps with metal tools, on a smooth shale rock surface.

The earliest drawings were created back in the ninth millennium BC. They depict primitive hunters surrounded by wild and predatory animals.

Later petroglyphs are filled with ritual and everyday scenes from the lives of ancient people. The animals depicted are already mostly domestic. There are many dogs, sheep, and camels among them. It is also striking that three-humped camels can be seen in the drawings.

Abstract figures can be seen on some petroglyphs, the origin of which has not yet been interpreted. Researchers suggest that these signs have some kind of cult or religious meaning.

More "modern" Scythian petroglyphs depict armed warriors and rulers.
And the youngest drawings belong to the period of the eighteenth century AD. Starting in the twelfth century, Sufi dervishes settled in the gorge, so Arabic script is already found on the latest petroglyphs. Arabic inscriptions tell about the life of the dervishes and their followers.

Researchers studying rock carvings in the Sarmysh gorge say that among the four thousand stone paintings, they have never found repeated or identical petroglyphs. Each petroglyph is unique.

A special place among the cave paintings of the gorge is occupied by images of so-called space aliens - two-headed human figures in spacesuits. These petroglyphs have recently attracted a huge number of curious tourists to the Sarmysh gorge.

The most attractive thing about this area is that even today it appears to our eyes almost as pristine and pure as it was in ancient times at the dawn of civilizations.

Well, the study of anomalies, mysteries and mysteries of the Sarmysh gorge continues today. It is possible that new hypotheses and answers to existing questions will appear soon.