Mangyshlak is a mysterious peninsula on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, the alien landscape of which hides mystical secrets. Archaeological and geological mysteries are hidden in its rocky terrain: mysterious necropolises, strange giant drawings, amazing hollows. All this attracts the curiosity of travelers and scientists thirsty for knowledge.
If you look at the peninsula from an airplane, it resembles a camel's skin - gray-yellow, with brown marks of dried grass … Sometimes it rises in humps with white sides, which descend into the beds of dried rivers. It’s hard to believe that many millennia ago, instead of stones, there was thick forbs here, and wide rivers flowed along dry beds. Huge trees also grew here, in the shade of which tigers, cheetahs and lions watched their prey. Climate change has led to dry, hot winds draining the land and the once blooming land turned into a sandy desert.
This is how the commissar of the Red Army detachment saw Mangyshlak in 1933: “A terrible sight opened before our eyes. The stone had no end and no edge. The impression was that we were driving exactly through a huge abandoned house…. Nothing alive in the area: not a single blade of grass, no birds, no nomads. If they told me that such a country exists, I would not believe …”.
But several centuries ago, the climate on the peninsula was not so harsh, and the tribes of the Khazars, Mongols and Seljuks roamed here, replenishing their water reserves from numerous sources. Surprisingly, in the semi-desert Mangyshlak, healing springs, including thermal ones, are still gushing out of the ground. The reason is the sands, which play the role of a kind of sponge that absorbs scarce precipitation.
There is a unique basin on the peninsula - Zhigylgan (Fallen Earth). The edges of this basin form a regular circle with a diameter of at least 10 kilometers. It looks like a huge bowl filled with fantastic piles of rocks. It seems to a person who came here for the first time that he was in the circus arena, and around - the fortress walls of a huge ruined city. Most likely, the basin was formed by dissolution of rocks by natural waters, but when you stand at the top, you wonder how this could have happened.
On the western coast of Mangyshlak there is one of the deepest depressions on earth - Karagiye (50 x 30 km). The bottom of this depression is 132 meters below the level of the World Ocean and 100 meters below the Caspian Sea. Its origin is a mystery to geologists, since it is inexplicable from the point of view of known geological processes.
Depressions are usually formed either by earthquakes or by subsidence of rocks. But in the case of slow subsidence, the rock layers in the section take the cross section of the plate, and during an earthquake, younger rocks should have appeared at the bottom of the depression. But in Karagiye, the lower and outer layers of rocks have the same age and geology. The impression is created that a mysterious huge excavator picked up the earth with a bucket and threw it into the sea, hiding the consequences of its work. There is another unconfirmed theory that the depression was formed as a result of powerful wind currents (the wind “blew out” the earth from a huge territory several million years ago).
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But the most remarkable thing on the peninsula is the unique architectural underground and aboveground monuments of the Paleolithic and Middle Ages - necropolises. The fact is that in antiquity Mangyshlak was the gateway to trade links between East and West. Since the end of the 1st century, the Great Silk Road passed through its territory. Who was not there! Pechenegs and Turkmens, Mongols, Khazars and Adays (the wildest Kyrgyz tribe). All tribes expelled from their land found shelter here. Adai people and Turkmens built hundreds of unique necropolises on Mangyshlak, the largest of which are Kenty-Baba and Beket-Ata.
Kety Baba is a 15th century necropolis with a steppe mosque, a prayer stone in a circle of other stones. While praying, the traveler felt safe here, since he was under the protection of the saint, and no one dared to disturb the prayer, even his enemies. On the walls of the necropolis, horses and camels are depicted in floral patterns. At the entrance - a charm in the shape of a triangle.
Beket-Ata is an underground mosque named in honor of the 18th century prophet. This legendary man has traveled many roads on his way, comprehended a lot. He taught people, healed the weak and suffering. Also, the sage resolved controversial issues, showing wisdom, leading both sides to agreement. In his sermons, Beket-Ata instructed believers to live in truth, to be just and to do good.
But the most unusual underground structure is the Shakhbagat temple. It belongs to the 9th-10th centuries. The entrance to the building is decorated with epitaph inscriptions in Arabic. These inscriptions are surrounded by animal figures and ornaments. All decorations are strictly thought out and form a composition. The temple itself is literally cut down underground, and in the central hall there are four massive two-meter columns with capitals. It is interesting that all the capitals belong to different architectural trends. The hall is illuminated by a hole in the domed ceiling.
In 1986, while studying monuments of medieval architecture on the Ustyurt plateau, researchers discovered strange drawings with a diameter of at least a hundred meters. These were spirals of various shapes, perfect ellipses and circles. There were also figures resembling shamrocks, bird wings or dragonflies. Soil scientists who have studied these drawings claim that the spirals can be hundreds of years old.
Archaeologists have different opinions. Some attribute the drawings to the Neolithic era, drawing a parallel with the drawings on the Nazca plateau in Peru, others consider them to be modern creations. But in any case, it is not clear why these figures were created?
To the west of the plateau with drawings, the remains of an unusual ancient settlement with two protective ramparts of an amazing design were discovered. Its shape resembles a sacrificial altar that has no resemblance. Scientists have suggested that there is some kind of connection between this structure and the spiral patterns.
There is also a sacred mountain Sherkala on Mangyshlak, which rose 300 meters above the steppe. It is impossible to climb it without special equipment. They say that if you go around it around the perimeter and make a wish, then it will definitely come true.