San-Tash

San-Tash means counting stones, and the name comes with a story: that Tamerlane, marching east, had each soldier place a stone on a pile, and on the return march take one back, so that the stones left standing counted the dead. It is a good story and it is almost certainly not the origin of what is there, which archaeologists identify as Bronze Age and Saka-period burial mounds, part of a large kurgan field on the plain between Issyk-Kul and the Karkara. What a visitor sees is heaps of stone and low earth mounds spread across open grassland with mountains behind, unfenced and unexplained beyond a sign or two. The interest is the setting and the story rather than anything visually dramatic.

The main sights

• Stone heaps - the mounds the legend is attached to.
• Kurgan field - burial mounds spread across the plain.
• Open grassland - steppe running to the ranges on both sides.
• The road east - the route toward Karkara and the Kazakh border.

When to go

May to October; the plain is snow-covered and the road difficult in winter. The site takes under an hour and is normally seen on the way to or from the Karkara valley.

Before you go

There is very little to look at: heaps of stone in a field, with minimal interpretation. The famous legend does not match the archaeology, which the signage does not clarify. There are no facilities. It works as a ten-minute stop rather than a destination.

Nearby

Karkara valley lies east; Issyk-Kul is west.

Key facts