‘Asrlar Sadosi’ Festival of Traditional Culture is annually organized by Fund Forum and UNESCO Office in Uzbekistan.

‘Asrlar Sadosi’ Festival of Traditional Culture covers more and more events, which presents various cultures and traditions, applied art, national cuisine, unique heritage of Uzbekistan. The event helps to familiarize people with rich history of Uzbekistan.

This year, ‘Asrlar Sadosi’ Festival of Traditional Culture will be held at Sarmishsai Gorge in Navoi region, which is one of natural prehistoric art gallery of Uzbekistan.

It is a unique ancient landmark that offers thousands of petroglyphs and other archeological sites. As of today, more than 10,000 rock engravings have been discovered in the Sarmishsai Gorge and in the vicinity.

The cliffs feature engraved images of humans, the weapons and tools they used, their clothes and household items. Other interesting images are of various animals, some of which are now not sighted in Uzbekistan.

There are also carved images of wild goats, argali, bison, aurochs, wild horses, donkeys, deer, donkeys, camels, gazelles, wild boars and saigas. Wild animals perpetuated in the rock art include wolves, snow leopards, cheetahs, foxes and jackals. Some images show people wearing clothes characteristic of rituals.

The Sarmishsai Gorge is also home to a series of images dating from later periods: the early and the late middle ages. Also, in addition to the many images and geometrical shapes the Sarmishsai petroglyphs feature inscriptions in Arabic and Cyrillic scripts.

On the whole, Sarmishsai’s archeological landscape retains traces indicating that the area was actively used for millennia. The petroglyphs at Sarmishsai, the largest and most unique storehouse of rock art in Uzbekistan, form the centerpiece of the Qoratog cultural landscape.

Photos: UzA