Just in 120 km from Almaty and 20 km downstream Ili River from reservoir there is a place that will transport you far back in time. In the early Middle Ages there was ford across the Ili at the narrowest point-the Kapchagai Gorge, at Tamgaly-Tas. For centuries, an image of Budda has gazed into the sky from an enormous rock on the right bank. This is Tamgaly-Tas. The sunblackened cliff-faced have preserved many petroglyphs (rock paintings)? Imagesof mysterious deities and late Buddhist inscriptions whose meaning has yet be unraveled. There are about a thousand different rock drawings ranging from deer-hunters to the Buddha. The Sanskrit text under the drawings reads “Om mane padme hum”, meaning “A snow-white pearl in the lotus flower” or, in another translation, “Blessed be the one born from the lotus”. These inscriptions and drawings date back to the 12th centuty. Nearby is another rock with writings in an ancient Turkic runic script dating back to the 8-9th centuries. These were presumably left by Kypchak tribes, although scolars have yet to prove this. The Tamgaly-Tas altar is not the only relic of Kazakhstan’s Buddhist past: Buddhism was widespread throughout southern Kazakhstan in medieval times. Tamgaly-Tas is also very popular with Almaty’s rock-climbers, who gather here in spring and autumn.