Berel Kurgans

The Berel cemetery in the Bukhtarma valley holds around seventy burial mounds of the Pazyryk culture, the Scythian-related horse nomads of the Altai, dating to roughly the fourth and third centuries BC. Their importance is preservation: water that entered the burial chambers froze into a permanent lens of ice within the mound, and the resulting permafrost kept organic material that normally rots, so excavations from 1998 onward recovered horses buried with elaborate harness and antlered headdresses, wooden and leather objects, felt and textiles, and the timber structure of the chambers themselves. Finds are in museums in Astana and Oskemen; a site museum and reconstructed mound stand in the valley.

The main sights

• The mound field - the line of kurgans across the valley floor.
• The excavated mound - the opened and displayed burial structure.
• The site museum - the explanation of the frozen tombs and their contents.
• The Bukhtarma valley - the Altai setting of the cemetery.

When to go

June to September, when the valley road is open; the area is snowbound in winter. Excavation seasons run in summer and work is sometimes visible. The site museum keeps limited hours.

Good to know

The major finds are in museums elsewhere, not on site. What remains is mounds in a field with limited interpretation. The valley is a long drive from Oskemen. Border zone permit requirements apply to parts of the area.

Nearby

Rakhmanov Springs lie up the valley; Katon-Karagay is west.

Key facts