Mongolia

Tsagaan Salaa rock paintings are located in the most western part of Mongolia. In 2011, all the Mongolian Altai’s petroglyphs were inscribed on the UNESCO world heritage. Tsagaan Salaa is one of the sites concerned by this protection.

The site is located inside Altai Tavan Bogd National Park and covers 15 square kilometres. We can see about 10000 paintings on the rocks that scatter the southern part of the white river, ”Tsagaan Gol”. This important collection of pictograms dates back to a large period going from Neolithic to Bronze Age, and mainly represents hunting and breeding scenes (with herds or lonely animals).

These rock paintings are an important treasure for many reasons : not only because they’re very numerous, but also because the painted subjects and their composition have a big expressiveness and are real historical and artistic witnesses of a period. Relating the transition between a primary society, based on hunting and picking, and a breeding society, they give us precious information about the beginnings of nomadic pastoral economy in Mongolia.