Interesting places to travel in Almaty region -
History of Kazakhstan -
Issyk is a museum reserve, opened in 2010 in the city of Esik, it includes 80 Saki burial mounds (ancient burials), the museum contains over 3 thousand exhibits that were discovered during archaeological excavations for public viewing. In the era of early nomads, more than two thousand years ago, this region was inhabited by steppe tribes, called “Sakas” by the Persians and “Scythians” by the Greeks, located in the Zhetysu region, on the picturesque slopes of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains. This archaeological site was recognized as an outstanding monument of Saka culture in world archeology. Its discovery became one of the brightest pages of world archeology of the twentieth century. More than 50 years ago (1970), Kazakh archaeologists made a sensational discovery - they found an untouched burial ground in the Esik mound. The discovery of the Kazakh "Tutankhamun" became world famous under the name "Golden Man". The significance of the Esik mounds and its main relic, the “Golden Man,” for the history of Kazakhstan served as the basis for the creation of an open-air museum.
In the halls of the permanent exhibition of the state historical and cultural museum-reserve "Esik" there are more than 500 exhibits on display from the Paleolithic era to the last Middle Ages. A significant part of the exhibits reveals the history and culture of the Saka tribes. The exhibition features interactive areas next to real artifacts, where visitors can touch real fragments of ceramics from different periods with their hands. Among them, the most interesting are the real stone statues of the Turkic era at the entrance to the territory of the museum-reserve, the museum mound and the stone labyrinth. The exposition of the Esik Museum-Reserve presents not only artifacts dating back to the Saka period. The materials here, covering periods from the ancient Stone Age to the late Middle Ages, attract attention for their diversity. These artifacts were found in different regions of the country at different times.
The Esik cemetery (V-III centuries BC) is located in the east of the city of Almaty, on the two banks of the Esik River, 50-55 kilometers, not far from the city of Esik, the administrative center of the Enbekshikazak district of the Almaty region. The archaeological territory of the cemetery starts from the Kuldzha road and extends to the territory of the city of Esik (in the southeast). Currently, on the territory of this large burial ground, which became the burial place of the nobility, there are more than 80 mounds. In ancient times, the cemetery area was 1.5 thousand hectares and included more than 600 mounds of various sizes. In 1999, under the leadership of archaeologist Beken Nurmukhanbetov, three mounds were examined in the cemetery, one of which is currently equipped with a museum and is an exhibition object of the museum-reserve.
The ancient city, known as the Rakhat monument, is located 5 kilometers from the city of Esik, near the village of Rakhat. The archaeological complex of Rakhat is a place where many different cultures lived, from the Saka period to the 13th century. The city-state consists of three identical castle complexes, stretching from east to west, with a trapezoidal hill in the central part. Artificial slopes and fences were built around the ditches around the central part, which turned into a very convenient fortification structure. In 2004, specialists from the Alkey Margulan Institute of Archeology conducted research on the monument and identified a cultural layer corresponding to the time of the Esik burial ground. It is believed that this monument was the residence of the kings of the Saka dynasty and it was from here that the remains of the Golden Man were taken.
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