More Kazakhstan!

Yesterday we went on a day trip out to UNESCO World Heritage site......the petroglyphs of TAMGALY TAS. They are about 115 miles outside of Almaty.
For various reasons getting out and about here is not straight forward so we decided to go as an organised group.......7 of us, two vehicles, 2 drivers and a guide..........we had a grand day out!

 Most of the petroglyphs are Bronze Age (there are three ages of images on the site) and are etched into the rock rather than painted.

Can you see the little figure at the bottom with a stick?

 This was one of my favourites.....an image within an image

 The human figures were the most haunting for me......they give a real connection with the people who made them........see the rays around the head? He is a sun god.

 This section had a lot of human figures and what are called The Seven Gods.....not all easy to see.....but one is the figure towards the top with his head surrounded by dots and another to his right with rays coming from his head.

 Now as you can see from this pic we were in the middle of NOWHERE, while that is fab and I had one of those moments when I stood and could hear absoloutely NOTHING, could see no sign of civilisation, amd I thought "I'm in the middle of the steppe in central Asia.......how lucky am I?.......ok getting all philosophical....I'll stop now!! !it is one reason you are not recommended to just set off on your own.......here we were over an hours drive from cell phone reception and there is nothing and no-one around. Pic below shows the road disappearing into the distance.....I asked the guide where it went, she shrugged her shoulders and said.....it's just a road, a Kazakhstan road!!!

So we get back to the cars to find another car parked beside ours! Then we realised their engine would not start.....after fiddling with it with no luck in getting it started it was decided one of our vehicles would tow it nd try and get it going. So off we set.......no luck getting it going.......so carry on towing......after the tow wire snapped twice (very rough road) it was decided to leave it where it was and take one of the women (who it turn out was pregnant and due that day....pretty silly place to go on that day!!) to where there was phone reception to call for a recovery truck. Exactly why you don't head out on your own......they were so lucky we were there......we saw no-one else along the road on the way back till we hit the main road.......well over an hours drive.