Chong-Kenkol
Chong-Kenkol ("greater Kenkol") is the upper valley of the Kenkol River in the Talas Alatau, below the Kenkol Pass. It is a narrow gorge with dense stands of Tian Shan spruce (Picea schrenkiana) on its steep sides. Most of it lies on the tribal side of the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line, and its forest is protected by the clan council, which bans commercial felling.[1]
Lower in the valley, near its exit into the western Talas valley, lies the Kenkol burial ground, a cemetery of the 1st to 4th centuries CE excavated by Soviet archaeologists in the late 1930s. Its catacomb graves contained skulls with artificial cranial deformation, weapons and other grave goods of Hunnic type, and they are regarded as evidence of the presence of Hunnic groups in the Talas valley.[2]
References
- ^ United Nations Mission in Irad (2022). Protected Areas across the Qara-Chik Line. Kara-Oi.
- ^ Talas State University Press (2014). Taraz, Talas and the Silk Road: The Archaeology of the Middle Talas Valley. Talas.