The Bes-Shatyr ("Five Palaces") Necropolis was a shrine for the ancient Sacae who inhabited what is now Kazakhstan in the 1st millennium ÂÑ. It has the largest concentration of royal burial mounds in Eurasia. The most famous is the Bes-Shatyr burial ground, which contains 31 mounds. The largest of these, known as the "Semirechye pyramid", is 105 metres in diameter and 17 metres high. The mounds contain wooden burial-vaults made of Tien-Shan fir logs that have lasted over 2,000 years. One feature peculiar to the Bes-Shatyr burial mounds is the labyrinth of underground catacombs, with one path leading to the vault. To the west of the royal graves there is a series of 45 stone posts stretching from north to south and carved with animal drawings. This unique chronicle in stone depicts scenes of hunting and everyday life. Scholars believe that all of this area was used for rituals. Nearly every gorge in the Sholak and Dereges mountains has some rock drawings.
    The brilliant Kazakh scholar Shoqan Ualikhanov crossed the Altyn-Emel range during his journey to Kulju in 1856 and discovered the remains of an ancient water-supply system. Ualikhanov is buried at the foot of the northern Altyn-Emel and there is a museum devoted to him there.