One stop in the Cholpon-Ata area was just across the road from Lake Issyk-Kul. It was an open air museum that featured a large field of rocks, many with petroglyphs carved onto them.

The first two photos are just to orient you. The first is looking at the lake with the snow-capped mountains behind it. You can see a portion of the rock field. The second photo is just 180 degrees from the first photo. Again, you can see the extensive rock field and the mountains behind which also have some snow on them. They have more snow than you can see but we were just too close to them. Also, the other side of those mountains is Almaty, Kazakhstan, our next stop.

Our local guide described the petroglyph in the third photo as the “Mona Lisa” of the museum. After touring the whole museum, I couldn’t argue with him.

The last two photos are just two more petroglyphs of the dozens that we saw. Some were quite impressive.