Each nation has its sacral place – the centre of their world. There are many confirmations in the history of Turks that the Altai Mountains were such center of muiltimillion Turks population.
Turk-speaking nations are known from the 3rd century B.C. First mentioning of Turk ethnonym was at the beginning of VI century at Altai and referred to the small population that became predominant in the Middle Asia with time.
While examining the sources and archeological studies of Altai we were more interested in artifacts found in Berelskiy barrow on the territory of Kazakhstan and in Pazyrskiy barrow in 100 km on the territory of the Russian Federation. Interments in a good state of preservation have given the unique findings to the world. Most of it served as style-forming elements of the major Kazakh national symbols.
The place, we were heading to, has been explored many years ago. Due to changes of the status of this territory amateur hunting has been allowed here just two years ago. The trophy hunting will be allowed next year. We've spent twenty-four hours, rode 1600 kilometers, 400 of which were on the roads passing the Altai Mountains.
After completion of all formalities and filling in the forms we went to the base camp on the river bank. It is the home to Taimen that is listed as endangered in the Red Book. As an alternative, grayling fishing is allowed here.
Meeting the guides is always exciting moment, since you don't want to be accompanied by suspicious guys. Our first impression was good. We noticed that they are examining us, carefully asking about our horse-riding experience and our ability to walk in the mountains. These skills are quite important for hunting Siberian Ibex.
