Description of the attraction
The sacred mountain Sulaiman-Too, which is under the protection of UNESCO, is a mountain range with five peaks, towering over the Fergana Valley and the city of Osh. The rock formation is 1140 meters long. Some researchers believe that this particular mountain was known in the past as the Stone Tower, and Claudius Ptolemy wrote about it in his work "Geography". It marked the middle of the Silk Road, a trade route between Asia and Europe.
Sulaiman-Too was a sacred place for the tribes who lived here in antiquity, and then for the Kyrgyz. The slopes of this mountain are decorated with drawings that are several thousand years old - petroglyphs. The mountain has changed its name several times. It was called Bara-Kukh, and from the 16th century - Takhty-Suleiman, which in translation means "Throne of Solomon". On one of its peaks stands a mosque with the same name. Historians believe that it appeared here during the reign of Babur - in 1510. The mosque was destroyed in 1963, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was rebuilt from the old drawings. Two more historical buildings - the Rawat-Abdullakhan mosque and the Asaf ibn Burkhiy mausoleum - are located on the outskirts of the mountain. On the eastern side, near the Sulaiman-Too ridge, you can see the building of ancient thermal baths, erected approximately in the XI-XIV centuries.
Nowadays, many tourists climb Mount Sulaiman-Too not at all for religious reasons, but in order to examine the surroundings from its peaks and see seven caves on its slopes, two of which have been turned into a museum where objects of sacred cults are collected.
In 2010, around the Sulaiman-Too mountain, a rapid spontaneous construction of residential buildings began, where refugees who left their homes in Osh due to urban unrest settled. Houses obstruct the passage and spoil the view of the mountain. Local historians sound the alarm and call on local authorities to stop building up the Sulaiman-Too neighborhood.
