Photo:Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Anne-Sophie Hygen

In 2004 Tamgaly was included on the UNESCO World Heritage List . The area consists of more than 5000 prehistoric rock carvings, in addition to settlements, burial grounds and other kinds of cultural heritage. Tamgaly has been inhabited by people from various nomadic tribes from the Bronze Age until our time, a period of 3600 years. Despite their differences they all have carved figures and epic scenes in the rock of the sloping hillside in the narrow river valley, and it must have been regarded as a sacred place until our time. Cultic rites are still being performed here. 

The Directorate for Cultural Heritage has in recent years been an adviser for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the conservation, management and organizing of Tamgaly, 170 kms out on the steppes northwest of Almaty in the southeast part of Kasakhstan. The cooperation has been extended to also include Sarmishai in Uzbekistan.