An array of five detached outlier mountains, up to 200 m high, combining burial grounds, rock paintings and special structures, which, according to some archaeologists, were all used by ancient people to observe the stars, the sun and the moon.
The ridge stretches for 4.5 kilometers from north to south and consists of five main forts, but it got its name from the northernmost mountain - "Chest", on top of which there is a rock in the form of a cube, outlines similar to a chest. After that, other hills received serial numbers.
The whole area, the landscape is so unusual and the atmosphere is mysterious. Being there, you directly feel the energy. Another interesting point is the acoustics between the rocks, sounds can be heard at a great distance. You will be able to discern the conversation of people who are far away, and under normal conditions it would be impossible to hear them. If a person speaks softly, standing on the top of the slope, the listeners at the bottom of the ridge can hear him perfectly, although the distance between them is 200-300 meters. The shape of the mountain, resembling a horseshoe, creates a corridor along which sound flows without losing its volume and intelligibility. This is possible thanks to the air flow from top to bottom.
First Chest. The most beautiful, interesting and significant in the ridge in the ritual and astrological sense. Back in Soviet times, in this area, while plowing a field, they accidentally opened the shaman's grave with a tractor. Then a stone was dug out, on which constellations of the other hemisphere and some stars, visible almost through a telescope, were depicted.
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According to Academician V. Ye. Larichev, who has been studying Chests for about 30 years, it was here that the "world mountain" was located - an astrological sanctuary, including a priestly temple and an ancient observatory. Scientists have known for a long time about the mythical world mountain, allegedly located at the North Pole. According to legend, this is a kind of primordial land where the greatest gods lived and where the first people appeared. Each nation had its own world mountain, or rather, its image. It turns out that the First Chest is the world's mountain for this region.
The second Chest is of particular interest to photographers - numerous stone pyramids are being erected on it. The construction of such pyramids has deep roots: the Khakass used to create them as dwellings of mountain spirits in especially revered places, to which the Chests belonged since ancient times. In the area of the second and third Chests, one can find confirmation of this, in the form of several ancient stone fences of burial grounds.
On the rocky slopes of the Fourth Chest there are drawings carved more than two thousand years ago. Petroglyphs are a kind of heroic epic in paintings. They show not only the difficult earthly path of the hero, but also the other world, where he finds himself after death at the hands of an enemy lurking in ambush (the lower part of the stone slab). The exposition of the Shirinsky Museum of Local Lore can tell you more about their interpretation. The most mysterious is the White Horse petroglyph. Scientists suggest that the drawing appeared about 16 thousand years ago, during the Ice Age. The ancestors saw the renewed Time in the image of this Horse.
The Fifth Chest is the southernmost of all. A large group of burial grounds is located in front of it. At its foot is an irrigation canal, one of those that has been preserved since ancient times (already in the 1st millennium BC the Khakass-Minusinsk depression was the center of irrigated agriculture).
People are still wondering what it is: an observatory of the ancients, a cult place, a landing site for alien spaceships, or all together? The entire complex is often called the Temple of the Sun. There is a legend that the Khakass spirits do not let everyone into this place, confuse the road or send thunderstorms with strong winds. If you still manage to get to the Chests, do not forget to tie a strip of cloth to the sacrificial tree (you will see it right away), this will be your sign of worship of the omnipresent spirits.
Not far from these mysterious mountains, you can live in numerous camp sites and tent camps located on Lake Bele. Bases: "Bolshoy reach", "ELKO", "Pavlova's dacha", "GOLDEN ZVEZDA", "Chalpan", "Aviator".
How to get there: From the highway from Shira to the Kommunar mine, you need to turn right between the villages of Marchelgash and Topanovo - onto the highway that crosses Bely Iyus on a reinforced concrete bridge. Behind the bridge there is the first turn to the right and there is the gravel road that leads past the Chests to the railway station.
If you go to Sunduki from Malaya Syya, you can shorten the path by turning off the Shirinskaya highway behind the village of Troshkino, before the pass through Kyzyl-Khaya, to the left, onto a dirt road that runs along the Ius and leads directly to the bridge over the river. In some places the road comes close to the shore.
