Nearest settlements: Osh, Nookat,
Coordinates: latitude 40.515, longitude 72.4992
The village of Aravan, near the southern capital of Kyrgyzstan, the city of Osh, is known for its rock paintings depicting the famous "heavenly horses" of the Fergana Valley, which are considered the ancestors of the best breeds of Asian trotters. The monument is located 27 km west of the city of Osh, in the eastern part of the village of Aravan.
The monument consists of a stone ridge, a rock, on some surfaces of which rock images of mountain goats, horses, and wild animals are carved. Also at the foot of the main part of the rock is a spring and burials revered by the local population as the grave of the saint "Duldul-Ata" and a mosque.
Ancient people, residents of the Davan state, centered in the Fergana Valley, depicted heavenly horses. At a height of about 15-16 m from the base of the rock, common images of mountain goats, deer, people, and others are applied with point chipping. Among them, large images of two pairs of horses, most likely stallions and mares, stand out sharply. Their figures are rendered very elegantly and clearly. The outlines of the horses are scratched on the stone almost to natural size and painted with ochreous material that has not lost its bright color over the millennia. The features of the style and technique of these images allowed A.N. Bernshtam to link them to the legend of the high-bred heavenly horses "tianma," bred in Davan. This served as a reason for him to localize the city of Ershi, famous for breeding this breed of horses, at the settlement of Marhamat.
There is also a whole complex of images of Davan horses in the area of Ayramach-Tuu (or Surot-Tash) 8 km northwest of Osh. It should be noted that Davan horses, despite the typicality of the image, stylistically differ significantly from other depictions. They are executed with great skill and precise knowledge of the characteristics of the animals: with beautiful body shapes, long slender legs, and strong croups. A special distinction is their small elegant head on a long curved neck, which conveys the image of truly high-bred "heavenly" horses.
Davan horses were renowned for their speed, agility, and endurance. They participated in competitions, if we speak in modern terms, in sports games. And not only that. They were also bred for military purposes. In the epic "Manas," these incomparable steeds, who know no fatigue, are celebrated. During races, they could be on the road for up to sixty days.
At one time, these steeds attracted the interest of the eastern state of Tan. One of the reasons for the century-long war between the states of Tan and Davan was precisely these famous horses. When the army of the state of Tan won in one of the battles, they took two hundred steeds as trophies to the east. There, they received the name of heavenly horses.
In the surrounding mountains, there are many rock images of domestic animals that fully correspond to the description of the legendary "heavenly horses." Similar petroglyphs can be found on the stones of the sacred mountain Suleiman-too, rising in the center of the city of Osh, in the Surreti area near Batken, or on the Surot-Tash rock near Kara-Suu. But the depiction of a mare and a foal on the rock in Aravan is truly striking.
Next to the horse drawings on the sheer cliff of the rock, one can discern small figures of goats or deer with bird beaks, as well as the figure of a hunter with a drawn bow. There are also abstract images resembling horseshoes or letters of the runic alphabet. These petroglyphs, typical for ancient Saka tribes, testify that material culture spread in these places, possibly long before the emergence of the ancient state of Davan, and the Fergana Valley was one of the oldest regions in the development of human civilization.
A unique natural area with historical artifacts, as is often the case, later became a sacred place revered by pilgrims. In Aravan, it is called Duldul Ota, and apparently, it is connected with the cult of Hazrat Ali, whose places of veneration are scattered throughout the outskirts of the Fergana Valley.
Duldul is the name of a legendary horse that, according to folk legends, repeatedly saved Ali's life by carrying him across wide rivers and mountain chasms in a single leap. In the vicinity of Shahimardan, in the Kadamjai district of the Batken region of Kyrgyzstan, deep impressions on bare rocks are revered as traces of Duldul's hooves, which struck sparks from the stone while galloping.
Another mysterious cult of Aravan is associated with a deep chasm located a few meters to the right of the rock paintings of the "heavenly horses." Pilgrims squeeze through the gap between huge basalt boulders to see a stone artifact on a round platform that remarkably resembles the sacred lingam of the ancient Aryans. The origin of this cult has now completely faded from popular memory. But people in these parts have a traditional reverence and genuine admiration for the wonders of nature and the monuments of their deepest history.
Source: time.kg