There is a unique open-air museum of petroglyphs near the resort town of Cholpon Ata. The area of the valley where rock carvings, burial mounds and stone balbals have been preserved stretches for dozens of kilometers and you can spend a whole day studying the images of ancient craftsmen who displayed scenes of hunting animals, images of animals and images of primitive hunters with arrows and a bow. Rock carvings on huge boulders date back to the II-IV millennium BC.

The image of a deer is most often found, which, according to an ancient legend, symbolizes the Mother Deer (Bugu-Ene), whose image is reflected in the works of the great Kyrgyz writer, world-famous Chyngyz Aitmatov. According to an ancient legend, the Kyrgyz family comes from Bugu-Ene and the image of the wise Mother Deer symbolizes peace, well-being and prosperity of the people.

Ancient stone carvings also depict wolves, leopards, yaks, horses, argali, bulls, camels on uneven surfaces; hunting scenes and stone tools in the hands of ancient nomads. Petroglyphs were created with pointed stone tools - they were beaten out or carved on the surface of the stone, the drawings were painted with natural vegetable dyes, charcoal, ocher.

Over the millennia, under the influence of the hot rays of the sun, due to weather conditions, the paints faded and only the embossed or carved outlines of animals and people remained. Rock carvings have been preserved everywhere on the territory of Kyrgyzstan, and according to these images, contemporaries study the way of life and culture of ancient tribes.

The Great Silk Road ran through the area, and from the drawings shown, we have an idea of trading caravans, rituals, religious objects, household utensils, etc. There is a version that sacrifices, spiritual and religious rituals, sacred mysteries of tribal priests, initiations and ancient traditions of worshipping ancestral spirits, nature spirits, and deities were held in this area. In this petroglyph reserve, you can't do without a guide who will tell you a lot of interesting things from the life of ancient tribes.