"Forty Girls"
Whether it happened or not, no one knows. One of the legends states that long ago, the Kyrgyz had a tradition of celebrating the Day of God. On that day, everyone would have fun, fry boorsoks (bread baked in oil or fat), cook shorpo (meat soup), and visit each other's families. Girls and boys, dressed in their best clothes, would set out to visit the residents of other ails scattered among the mountains. On one such day, forty girls, dressed in bright silk outfits, set off to an ail located over the pass. It took them a long time to climb the steep mountain paths to the pass. Finally, they reached it. But evening fell, and the girls hesitated to continue their journey. Suddenly, as often happens in the mountains where the climate is very harsh, the weather changed.
Black clouds covered the sky, a storm raged over the pass, unleashing blinding flashes of lightning and torrential rain upon the girls. There was nowhere for the girls to run, nowhere to hide. They had to stay put and wait for morning to come. Meanwhile, their parents in the ail became alarmed and set out to search for them. Only by morning did they reach the pass, and by that time the storm had calmed. They saw the bodies of the frozen girls. Only one girl was alive and told a horrifying story. This girl managed to survive thanks to her old but warm fur coat and felt boots. She came from a poor family. The other girls were daughters of wealthy people, and their expensive silk dresses could not protect them from the inclement weather. The girls were buried at the site of their demise. Since then, people have called this pass the Pass of the Forty Girls – Kyrk-Kyz Ashuu. There, one can still see forty graves.
