Suleiman Mountain (Throne of King Solomon) is located in the center of the city of Osh. The height of this mountain at its highest points reaches 100-150 meters, its length is one and a half kilometers, its width including the alluvial fan is 120 meters, and the absolute elevation is 1106 meters above sea level.
Suleiman Mountain is shrouded in legends and folk traditions, considered sacred since time immemorial. The slopes and foothills of Suleiman Mountain are rich in invaluable historical monuments of the past, both archaeological and architectural. Their chronological range spans from the Neolithic era to the late Middle Ages.
Since the time of Claudius Ptolemy, geographers have unsuccessfully searched for the Stone Tower, which became known to the scholarly world through the tales of ubiquitous merchants. It was only in 1843, after A. Humboldt's journey to Central Asia, that the Stone Tower began to be associated with the mountain Takht-i-Suleiman, located in the center of Osh.
Until the 16th century, Suleiman Mountain was called Bara-Kukh (Beautiful Mountain). This is how it was referred to by Zahir ad-Din Muhammad Babur - the founder of the Mughal Empire. When Babur was merely the ruler of Ferghana, he built a hujra - a gazebo - at the top of the Beautiful Mountain, where he loved to spend time.
The new name Takht-i-Suleiman (Throne of Solomon) was given to the mountain after the Muslim prophet Suleiman Sheikh was buried at its foot. From that time, the city became one of the centers of the Islamic religious world. Thousands of pilgrims from different regions of Asia flocked to the sacred mountain. They believed that their prayers would rise directly to God and their requests would be fulfilled.
At the very peak, a polished inclined stone slab shines. According to legend, Solomon himself sat on it. Every devout Muslim is obliged to visit this sacred stone at least once in their lifetime.
Suleiman Mountain holds invaluable informational material. Hundreds of petroglyphs are carved on the rocky outcrops of the mountain: on stone slabs, on the walls of caves and grottos. The oldest of the petroglyphs were created several millennia ago.
Among the rock carvings, there are entire inscriptions. The most famous of them was partially read in 1885 by Professor N.I. Veselovsky, an orientalist from St. Petersburg University. The inscription is located on the southern side of the first peak of Suleiman Mountain. It is executed in Kufic script and contains the name of the Samanid emir Nasr ibn Ahmad and the date - 329 AH (940-941 AD).
The Petroglyphs of Suleiman Mountain have attracted the attention of scholars for several decades. However, systematic and targeted study of them began recently, in 1994, with the establishment of the Southern Regional Department of the National Academy of Sciences.
In 1956, excavations were conducted in the Rusha Un-Kur cave - the Eagle Cave (now one of the halls of the Osh United Historical and Cultural Museum-Reserve). As a result of the excavations, a whole collection of stone tools from the late Neolithic period was discovered. This collection is stored in the Osh Museum-Reserve.
In 1967, on the southern slope of Suleiman Mountain, archaeologist E.V. Druzhinina from the Osh Local History Museum discovered ceramics identical in decoration and manufacturing technique to ceramics of the Chust culture. It was suggested that the first settled settlement existed here. This assumption was fully confirmed in 1976 when, during road construction, cultural layer outcrops of a terraced settlement of ancient farmers were uncovered on the same southern slope. The cultural layer outcrops were recorded by archaeologist E.V. Druzhinina.
At the eastern foot of Suleiman Mountain, there is a historical and local history museum, which experts consider to be the largest in the republic. In terms of tourist infrastructure, Osh has several non-star hotels and guest houses, which are used by local and Bishkek tour operators.
