They are called in various ways: "badiz" or "musin", but the most widespread variant sounds like "balbaltas". They can be met from the Mongolian sacred Orkhon River to the very Caspian Sea: in Mongolia, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, China and Kazakhstan. The political scientist Yerlan Karin had been researching the warriors for five years and issued his photo album devoted to this research.
We start our journey from Mongolia, the sacred Orkhon river which was the spring of the nomads.
Scientists believe that the local stone warriors bear evidence of the period of steppe kagans' power, military and political system and traditions of that time.
"Balbals" were made in honor of dead kagans, princes, sultans and baturs. Artistic patterns can tell about the social estate the particular person belonged to.
Influential people, those who were close to kagans, sit with their legs crossed and hold a cup in their right hand.
One of the largest and most famous memorial complexes of Mongolia preserved to our days is devoted to Bilge-kagan. It's situated 400 km from Ulan-Bator, on the left bank of the Orkhon.
