Welcome to the Altai Mountains, nature's own ancient gallery

Thousands of rock paintings make remote area the world’s best place to see 5,000 year old alfresco art.Thousands of rock paintings make remote area the world’s best place to see 5,000 year old alfresco art.

1/14. Drawings dating from the early nomadic era depict deer, shown with strangely disproportionate large size horns. Picture: Dr.Borodovsky

23 October 2014. ...this is the Russian Altai mountain range, where art exists in its most natural sense, carved into the rocks by ancient civilisations 5,000 years ago.

Located in Siberia, at its borders with China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, it is home to literally thousands of petroglyphs and drawings that continue to fascinate archaeologists today. Experts have been studying the area for more than a century, with each expedition deep into the heart of the valleys and gorges uncovering more fingerprints of the past.

Strangely some parts of the Altai Mountains have no petroglyphs at all, while others are like alfresco picture galleries from millennia past. One such place is remote Saldyar, on the banks of the Katun River, a place separated from the outside world by the high jagged peaks of the Saldyarskiy pass. [...] siberiantimes.com/