Mongolia is one of the most important and interesting destinations for travelers and scientists who are interested in Petroglyphs and Astronomy.
Goal of APM project is to map Astro-Petroglyphs around “Khar Salaa” and “Tsagaan Salaa” river valley in Bayan-Ulgii province in Mongolia. It will contribute to develop Astro-tourism especially Astro-Petroglyphs tour and help directly to protection of Petroglyphs sites. Also one of the important things is healthy sustainable economy development for local people indirectly.
The project area is located the Petroglyphs Complexes of the Mongolian Altai. It is one of the largest, oldest and least damaged concentrations of rock art in Asia and include three rock art sites in Tsagaan Salaa-Baga Oigor of Ulaankhus soum, and Upper Tsagaan Gol (Shiveet Khairkhan) and Aral Tolgoi, both of Tsengel soum. All three are located in high mountain valleys carved out by Pleistocene glaciers and they apart 35-40km away each other. Ritual monuments show the development of human culture more than 12,000 years age.
The Rock painting reflect nature, animals, daily lifestyle and others but we focus on astronomy object such as sun, moon, sky, solar system, flying objects what they saw, person praying to the sky etc. which are drawn on rock, and make the map and guide book.
The objectives of this project are as followings:
-Identify the interested locations for Astro-Petroglyphs sites
-Implement survey, interviews and collect folklore from local people
-Field trip for geographical coordinates
-Astro-Tourism training tips surrounding area
-Remote Sensing and GIS database for Astro-Petroglyphs
-Astro-Petroglyphs maps/tour guide in hard copy and online
