Turgay Discovery

February 28, 2018

Today we are launching the international project Keepers Geoglyphs Turgay. The community has 3 main tasks:

PROTECTION
Implementation of a variety of measures to save geoglyphs located in the risk zone (such as geoglyphs located in close proximity to populated areas, agricultural lands and roads).

RESEARCH
Preparation and implementation of large-scale, comprehensive, interdisciplinary scientific research.

HISTORICAL PRESERVATION
Initiation of the process of including geoglyphs in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

On the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe launched a fundraising

Be a participant of the international research community Keepers Geogliphs Turgay, together we will protect geoglyphs from destruction and save them for descendants.

Other Ways You Can Help
If you can’t donate, there are of other ways you can help, just sharing our page will bring us closer to our goal and raise awareness.
Maybe one of your friends might be interested in becoming a Keeper Geoglyphs Turgay!

Geogliph of Turgay trough

Geogliph - geographic or figured pattern put on the ground, the length of which is more than 4 meters. There are two ways of forming geogliphs - by removal of the upper layer of the ground along the edges, or scattering the ground or stones on the scores of the edges. Many geogliphs are so large that they can be observed only from the height of bird's flight. (The most famous example is the Naska geogliph).

Dmitriy Dey (discoverer of the Turgay trough geoglyphs)

In the spring of 2007 during the research of the territory of the Kostanai oblast, using Google Earth, I found two unique geogliphs.
Ushtogay square — a geometric figure comprising 101 burrow-type embankments.
The length of the square's side is 287 meters, and two to three rings of approximately 19 meters in diameter are at a distance of 112 meters from the north-west corner.

An embankment of 18 meters in diameter is on the opposite side at a distance of 112 meters from the south-east corner. If the square rings and embankments are the united figure, the combined length of the structure is 643 meters.

Turgay triquetra (Turgay swastika) — an embankment that looks like a three-beam swastika of 94 meters in diameter. Seven low burrows of different diameters (from 15 meters to 33 meters) are located on the right side of the embankment. Scattered lines, shaped like dumbbells are on the left side. If we imagine the swastika, the lines and embankments form a united ensemble, and the length of the geogliph is 512 meters!

Over the following years other similar objects were found in the region of the Turgai shallow gully. More information about it in "Our expeditions".