Mongolia

Khöshöö Tsaidam’s Turkish memorials are composed of four commemorative groupings, notably those erected in honour of Bileg Khan, famous politician from Eastern Turkish Empire (734), and in honour of Kul Tegin, commander-in-chief of the Turkish armed forces and Bileg Khan’s younger brother (731).

Khöshöö Tsaidam is the most important archaeological vestige of the Turkish Empire that extended across Central Asia between the 6th and 8th centuries. The only piece of information written on the steles turned out to be very precious to study the history and the culture of Central Asia. Moreover, these memorial places gave a good idea of the view of the world, of the religious belief, of architecture, arts, literary development, and of the politic relations of the first people of Central Asia.

Although it’s easy to clearly determine when the memorials of Bileg Khan and Kul Tegin were built, nothing allows dating the construction of the other monuments placed near the memorials. Nevertheless, after archaeological studies and researches, it’s now possible to think that each one of them was built at the same period, due to their similar conception, structure and custom. So many researchers ended up concluding that the monuments were bilt in the years 730’s in honour of the Turkish kings and aristocrats, and were destroyed by the Uyghurs just about ten years after their construction. Uyghurs destroyed almost everything, including the statues of the king and his family.

Some recent excavations on the site of Khöshöö Tsaidam permitted to discover many interesting objects, notably two statues of sheeps without heads located near the entrance of Bilgee Khan Memorial, half the chest of a broken human statue made in coarse white granite, without the head nor the right arm and holding a flat object in the left hand, a golden crown decorated with a mythical bird, small golden and silver containers, and a silver statue of deer.