The Big Salbyk Kurgan is located in the Republic of Khakassia. All the mounds of the Salbyk valley belong to the Tagar culture (the archaeological culture of the Bronze Age and Iron Age (IX-III centuries BC), named after the toponym - Tagarsky Island on the Yenisei River). It is interesting that scientists know more how representatives of this culture were buried than how they lived. The mounds of the Salby Valley date back to the very heyday of the Tagar culture, and it is not without reason that the leaders are buried in them. Hence the name "Valley of the Kings".
It was excavated in 1954-56. expedition of the Institute of the History of Material Culture and the Khakass Scientific Research Institute of Language, Literature and History, under the leadership of S. V. Kiseleva. According to the calculations of the scientist, in ancient times, the height of this earthen pyramid reached 30 meters. By the beginning of the excavation, the embankment had already been heavily washed, but even in this form the height of the hill reached 12 meters.
The first descriptions of the Bolshoi Salbyk mound were compiled in 1739 by the scientist and traveler Gerard Friedrich Miller during the "First Academic Expedition" of 1733-1743.
The mound is a stone square (70 by 70 m) of huge slabs of Devonian sandstone (weighing 50-70 tons). From a distance it looks like a real stone forest. It is believed that it was both an ancient temple and an astronomical observatory.
At the corners and sides of this stone fence, large menhirs were dug, only 23 stones up to 6 meters high.
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Archaeologists were able to recreate the structure and contents of the mound on paper. Before the construction of the gigantic earthen embankment, a burial vault made of logs in the form of a truncated pyramid was built inside the stone fence. This whole crypt, both inside and outside, is covered with a thick layer of birch bark. The crypt was 2.5 m high and covered a two-meter deep pit.
A log corridor led to the tomb. Only one person was buried in this small house. Apparently he was the most powerful man of that era, whose dominion extended over the entire Khakass-Minusinsk depression. There were several other people with him in the grave: two young warriors and women-servants, who apparently were supposed to serve and protect him in the next world.
One and a half kilometers from the Bolshoi Salbyk mound, there is a bipolar anomalous zone, indicated by two plates called the Salbyk gate. This is a very popular destination not only among tourists. People from different places come here to touch them. You can even see that in some places the stones are polished by their hands. This place is also popular with shamans.
A cult center of the Bronze Age was previously located near the Bolshoi Salbyk Kurgan, and there were also several stone statues - one of them "Igyr Oba" - is kept in the museum of Khakassia. It is possible that large slabs and steles taken from sanctuaries of the Bronze Age, which had previously stood on the ground, were used for the construction of the mound.
In 1996, a sculptural image of a lying tiger was found from the southwestern side of the mound. There is a similar image of tigers on the bronze Tagar plaques.
On some of the stones of the Bolshoi Salbyk burial mound, there are rock carvings made using the technique of point embossing. They are dominated by schematic anthropomorphic images: standing, lying, dancing figures of people. Such images were widespread in the Tagar culture.
According to calibrated radiocarbon determinations, the Bolshoi Salbyk Kurgan can be dated to the 5th century. d. n. e. This date does not contradict the historical analogies and dating of objects found in the mound. Bronze knives, awls, earthenware vessels belong to the Saragash stage of the Tagar culture.