Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Being one of the earliest human settlements, Gamigaya rock art always attracts curious visitors.

Located in Nakhchivan, Gamigaya is considered the second largest place after Gobustan famous for its rock art.

Some paintings at Gamigaya reflect ancient ideas and beliefs of ancient people, including the images of celestial bodies.

While visiting Gamigaya, one can also enjoy ancient images of deer, goats, big-horned bulls, cow, dogs, snakes, birds, horses, leopards and even some fantastic beings can also be found there.

Images of saddles and draught animal (a bull, a horse), as well as cart-like vehicles in the Gamigaya pictures, prove that different carrying devices were used in ancient times here.

Some symbols carved at Gamigaya are very similar to the ancient Orchon-Yenisei Turkish alphabet. Thus one can suggest that the Gamigaya petroglyphs were carved by tribes of Turkish origin which inhabited the territory between the 4th and 1st millennia B.C. The Orchon-Yenisei alphabet was probably developed gradually from the pictograms of earlier Proto-Turkic tribes.

The pictographic characters at Gamigaya do not duplicate each other in their plots. However, the same symbols were used in different compositions.

Gamigaya rock carvings and pictographic texts can be compared with the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia. Following the world flood, tribes shared similar mythological stories, similar petroglyphs and symbols.

If you soak up the atmosphere in a place that you are visiting, Gamigaya is definitely for you!

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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