The complex of natural and archeological monuments "Sunduki” is located near the Bely Iyus River, on the border of the Ordzhonikidzevsky and Shirinsky districts of the Republic of Khakassia. The ridge of 5 picturesque mountains owes its name to the appearance of the First Sunduk (Chest), the rocky top of which resembles a large stone cube - a chest. The name “Sunduki” appeared not so long ago, the Khakas name of this mountain is Khyzyl Haya (Red Rock). The complex consists of several observation platforms, two versions of the "sundial", a calendar and a biography of the great warrior, which reflects the mythology of the ancient inhabitants of the territory of Khakassia. The “Sunduki” mountain range is a complex of archaeological sites, such as burial grounds, rock drawings and special structures that helped ancient astronomers observe the stars, the Sun and the Moon, and keep track of calendar cycles.
Here is what Valentina Nikolaevna Tuguzhekova writes about Sunduki:
Two-hundred-meter buttes have their serial numbers. The first Sunduk (Chest) is the most beautiful and significant of the ridge in the ritual and astrological sense. In Soviet times, when plowing a field in this area, a shaman's grave was accidentally opened by a tractor. Then, they dug out a stone, which depicted the constellations of the other hemisphere and some stars visible almost through a telescope. On the rocky slopes of the Fourth Sunduk (Chest) there are petroglyphic drawings carved by a priest-artist more than two thousand years ago - the famous petroglyphs "Lyzhnik" (“Skier”). In front of the Fifth Sunduk (Chest)- the southernmost one - there is a group of burial grounds. The Fifth Sunduk (Chest) is fully correlated with the motion of the Sun. Here people met the New Sun and shamans performed rituals of worship. At its foot there is an irrigation canal, preserved from ancient times.
Sunduki are a multifunctional complex of antiquity. Archaeologist Vitaly Epifanovich Larichev believed that the First Sunduk and other mountains of the valley ridge between the Bely and Cherny Iyus rivers were an ancient open-air observatory. Observations of the cyclic movements of the Sun and Moon are very important for humans, since the economic and ritual activities of ancient people were subject to this rhythm. Instead of instruments for observationsбstones, holes and openings in the rocks were used on Sunduki. All of them are oriented to the most important points of sunrise and sunset of the celestial bodies on the days of the equinox and solstice - the key points for maintaining the ancient calendar. On Sunduki in Khakassia, you can see an ancient image of a mythological creature resembling a dragon, dissected into six parts. This is one of the very first clocks in the East. Before noon, the shadow of the wall moves from left to right, passing one division in about an hour. At noon, the Temple of Time is fully illuminated, then the shadow slides in the opposite direction.
The ancient people used the mountain range Sunduki in Khakassia as an observatory, as well as a defensive structure - the fortress “sve”. Ancient stone and earthen walls were found here, built of horizontally laid stone slabs, and also slabs vertically fixed in the ground. The man-made walls complement the natural rocks. During the military threat, such structures could accommodate several thousand head of cattle.
