• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Time Travel Turtle

A travel blog with stories beyond the brochure

  • HOME
  • ABOUT ME
  • CONTACT ME
  • BY COUNTRY
    • WEST EUROPE
      • Belgium
      • England
      • France
      • Germany
      • Ireland
      • Liechtenstein
      • Luxembourg
      • Netherlands
      • Northern Ireland
      • Scotland
      • Switzerland
      • Wales
    • NORTH EUROPE
      • Estonia
      • Finland
      • Latvia
      • Lithuania
      • Norway
      • Sweden
    • SOUTH EUROPE
      • Cyprus
      • Gibraltar
      • Greece
      • Holy See
      • Italy
      • Malta
      • Portugal
      • San Marino
      • Spain
    • EAST EUROPE
      • Austria
      • Belarus
      • Croatia
      • Czech Republic
      • Hungary
      • Montenegro
      • Poland
      • Serbia
    • NORTH ASIA
      • China
      • Japan
      • Kazakhstan
      • Kyrgyzstan
      • Mongolia
      • North Korea
      • Tajikistan
      • Uzbekistan
    • SOUTH ASIA
      • Cambodia
      • India
      • Indonesia
      • Myanmar
      • Malaysia
      • Nepal
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Sri Lanka
      • Thailand
      • Vietnam
    • NORTH AMERICA
      • Antigua & Barbuda
      • Belize
      • Canada
      • Costa Rica
      • Guatemala
      • Mexico
      • USA
    • SOUTH AMERICA
      • Argentina
      • Brazil
      • Chile
      • Paraguay
      • Peru
      • Uruguay
    • AFRICA
      • Egypt
      • Morocco
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
    • OCEANIA
      • Australia
      • New Zealand
    • MIDDLE EAST
      • Jordan
      • Turkey
  • MOST POPULAR
    • The world’s oldest backpacker
    • Orangutans in Borneo
    • The need for speed
    • Trying to get out of the slum
    • The lake swamped with tourism
    • Journey into Dreamland
    • The village where life begins again
    • Is Cambodia safe for travellers?
    • Making the perfect gin and tonic
  • UNESCO

Marketing a sacred mountain

August 28, 2019 | Michael Turtle | 8 Comments

WORLD HERITAGE SITE

Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

How does somewhere become sacred? Is it just… declared? Does someone one day just say that a place is sacred and nobody questions it?

It seems there normally has to be some kind of event associated with it – a miracle, for instance. But, more often than not, there’s no actual evidence of this event. People tend to believe what they want to believe.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

That makes you wonder about the motivation sometimes. Why has someone gone to the effort to declare a sacred place?

Often it is probably because of genuine religious devotion. But sometimes… well… sometimes it could just be a clever marketing tactic.

Is that what happened more than a thousand years ago at Sulaiman-Too, the sacred mountain in the city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan?

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Before we come to that, let me first give you a picture of what Sulaiman-Too is.

What is Sulaiman-Too?

It’s called a mountain but it’s not really that big – only about 200 metres high. But this part of Kyrgyzstan is mainly long flat plains so a sudden jutting of rock from the ground certainly stands out.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Because it’s not huge, you don’t climb up it so much as you climb along and over it. The main path takes you gradually upwards along one side of the mountain and then quickly down the other.

Along the way are more than a dozen different places of worship – small mosques, caves, and stones – none particularly impressive in its own right. The mountain itself is why the pilgrims come.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

And they have been coming for a long time. Researchers estimate that Sulaiman-Too has been a place of worship for at least 1500 years.

But before that it still had some sacred significance for another thousand years or more. The ancient petroglyphs created on the walls of caves here are evidence of that.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Why is Sulaiman-Too sacred?

So how did this mountain change from being simply a spiritual natural landscape into a focus of intense worship?

Well, this is where the legend of the marketing genius comes in.

To understand it, you need to step back and look at the big picture. The city of Osh is right in the middle of the network of paths that today we call the Silk Road.

To the north, to the east, and to the south are huge mountains – and travellers who made the arduous journey over these peaks would need somewhere to stop for a while to rest and feed their animals.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

However, Osh was not normally the first city that travellers would have arrived at after coming down from the mountains. That was Uzgen, about 50 kilometres away.

So, as the legend goes, the leaders of Osh wanted to come up with a good reason for why weary travellers should continue an extra 50km before having their break.

The answer? Religion!

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

And it worked. Even though Uzgen was the first stop; Even though Uzgen had a river, offering a perfect water supply; And even though Uzgen was already an established trading city, travellers started to choose Osh because they thought they could pray and worship at the mountain of Sulaiman-Too and that would bring them better luck for their onward journeys.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Although there are mosques on the mountain these days, they are relatively new – from just a few centuries ago. For most of the travellers who were stopping here at the zenith of the Silk Road period, it was a more spiritual type of worship, not tied to a particular religion.

(This would’ve been no coincidence if you believe the story about the marketing plan, because people of many faiths were crossing paths here and the leaders of Osh wanted them all to come!)

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

So what you would’ve found – and what you still find today – are different spot across Sulaiman-Too dedicated to different things that people would come to wish for.

There’s an opening in the rock that women who wanted to conceive a child would climb through.

There’s another rock that people would slide down if they wanted to cure back pain.

There’s another spot to help headaches, and another for longer life, and so on.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

The people came because they believed… not because of any evidence but because people believe what they want to believe, right?

Visiting Sulaiman-Too

When you visit Sulaiman-Too today, it is not too hard to imagine how it was on the mountain for all those hundreds of years that travellers would come and ask for some good luck.

You can still go into a lot of the caves. You can still see some petroglyphs on the walls. You can even still slide down the rock that is supposed to cure back pain.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

But there’s one thing that has changed – and it’s controversial.

It’s the enormous museum that has been built inside a cave, with the communist-style facade of glass and metal. It was added by the Soviets during their time in Kyrgyzstan and, I’m sorry, it’s an eyesore!

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

If you go inside, you’ll find some displays showing the history of the mountain but it’s quite a poor exhibition and there’s not much information in English. I would suggest you save your time and money – and not help the museum profit.

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

I’m actually a bit surprised that UNESCO added Sulaiman-Too to the World Heritage List, considering the impact this museum has on its appearance.

But this is acknowledged in the official listing, which says, “The authenticity of the mountain, its cult places, uses and functions are without doubt, even given the numerous interventions over the past 50 years.”

Visiting Sulaiman-Too Sacred Mountain, Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Still, all of that aside, Osh is a really interesting city with lots to see and do – and I think Sulaiman-Too is one of the highlights.

Even today it is bringing travellers to the city. That’s what I call a good long-term marketing plan!

This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. For more info click here. You can see all the UNESCO World Heritage Sites I’ve visited here.
Kyrgyzstan Travel Guide

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT KYRGYZSTAN?

See my Kyrgyzstan Travel Guide

To help you plan your trip to Kyrgyzstan:

  • A self-guided tour of the Soviet monuments in Bishkek
  • The strange Bishkek monument built for weddings
  • The best food to eat in Kyrgyzstan
  • See the Soviet murals left in Osh
  • Discover why this mountain has been sacred for centuries
  • You need to see Sary Chelek Lake for yourself to understand its beauty
  • Spending three days on a horse exploring the mountains
  • Would you drink horse milk? This place may change your mind!
  • Burana Tower is part of Kyrgyzstan’s Silk Road World Heritage Site
  • One of the mnost interesting Silk Road sites in the country

Let someone else do the work for you:

You may also want to consider taking a tour of Kyrgyzstan, rather than organising everything on your own. It’s also a nice way to have company if you are travelling solo.

I am a ‘Wanderer’ with G Adventures and they have great tours of Kyrgyzstan.

You could consider:

  • Highlights of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan (9 days)
  • Best of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (14 days)
  • The Five Stans of the Silk Road (26 days)

When I travel internationally, I always get insurance. It’s not worth the risk, in case there’s a medical emergency or another serious incident. I recommend you should use World Nomads for your trip.

Reader Interactions

    Comments Cancel reply

  1. Danila Caputo |

    January 22, 2018 at 11:42 pm

    Reply

    It’s incredible to think that there are petroglyphs and that people have been worshipping this mountain for at least 1500 years! And even more incredible to learn about the so called “marketing plan” O.O!

  2. Vibeke Johannessen |

    January 23, 2018 at 6:25 am

    Reply

    I don’t know much about Kyrgyzstan and don’t know anyone who has been there actually. It seems like a beautiful and an interesting place to visit. Sulaiman too sacred mountain looks so interesting. So cool there is a rock for back pain. I have never seen anything like this. I hope I can visit it one day 🙂

  3. Jenn and Ed Coleman |

    January 23, 2018 at 1:22 pm

    Reply

    I love the way that you told this story. It rolled forward with steady pacing and solid logic and, by the end, I fully believed you posit that it’s a cleaver marketing ploy. I have had recurring dreams about a building just like the Soviet Museum built into the side of a cave. Looking through your pictures, I had a sense of deja vu. Crazy. I think that’s the only building built into a cave I have seen.

  4. Chantell Collins |

    January 23, 2018 at 3:28 pm

    Reply

    Your article made me smile – “how do they convince people to walk further before taking a break? Religion!”. Such a huge part of many countries’ histories (and current day politics) was leaders using people’s beliefs to make things go in their favor. It’s interesting to look back with such clarity. Traveling and learning about other countries’ cultures and histories can really give us more insight.

  5. Paige |

    January 24, 2018 at 9:17 am

    Reply

    I’ve never heard of this mountain, but I love that you give so much backstory on just what makes it sacred. It seems like there’s a lot of history behind it. I would love to visit the different temples and mosques tucked into it. I love petroglyphs and usually think of Native American sites that have them that looked that way, it’s interesting how similar they are!

  6. terrigal hotel |

    January 24, 2018 at 3:34 pm

    Reply

    I have been to Kazakhstan but I never hear about this place, this is quite interesting. Thank you for sharing.

  7. Rental Properties |

    January 25, 2018 at 4:29 pm

    Reply

    It is an interesting place and the structure are quite impressive!

  8. Simon |

    January 25, 2018 at 6:15 pm

    Reply

    Loved the way you narrated the story. Thanks a ton for sharing. Really helpful.

Primary Sidebar

This is the website of travel writer, Michael Turtle. After working in broadcast journalism for a decade in Australia, Michael left Sydney to travel the world indefinitely and write about the places, people and experiences he discovers. This isn't a diary - these are real stories from the world.

Want Occasional Updates?

Sign up to be the first to hear the latest about the adventures of Time Travel Turtle. You'll also get access to special offers and exclusive news.
Thank you! You have successfully subscribed to our newsletter.

Search

  • PRIVACY POLICY