In ancient times, the Chulyshman valley was used for agricultural purposes. This is evidenced by the remains of irrigation canals southeast of the village of Koo, along the right and left banks of the Chulyshman River.
Water was diverted into the canals from small rivers - lateral tributaries of the Chulyshman. Some of the identified channels are up to 3 km long. With their help, flat areas of the floodplain terraces were irrigated.
Today, the remains of ancient irrigation systems dating back to the 6th-10th centuries A. D. can be observed at the confluence of the Tilanda, Tura-Khaya, Chulcha rivers into Chulyshman. They are made very soundly, and the closer to Balykcha, the more channels there are and the longer they are. There are such irrigation ditches from the Bashkaus River, and the Bogue River all diverges to irrigate the valley near the village of Balykcha.
Similar remnants of ancient irrigation monuments are also found in the valleys of the Small and Big Ilgumen (near the villages of Khabarovka and Kupchegen), in the valley of the Ursul River (between the village of Shashikman and the Kurata River), as well as along the Aktru River in the Tete tract. Their main canals stretched for tens of kilometers, overcoming all obstacles on their way. When a rock arose on the canal route, the ancient builders broke a hole in it and passed water through it. Such are, for example, the Oroktoisky suvakh and the canal of the irrigation system of the Big Ilgumen. Irrigation canals were run through the excavations along artificial embankments.
Shashikmansky suvakh, passes over the mountain and then passes through the neighboring valley along the embankments. The Ininsky Canal is arranged in the same way: it crosses the entire Katun valley along an artificially filled bed.
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An interesting pattern is that it is in the steppes where there are irrigation canals, for example, in the Kurai steppe or in the Ursula valley, that there are a huge number of mounds, stone women, ritual sites and inscriptions.