On our return journey to Tashkent our mountain guide took us on a diversion to see the petroglyphs at Hodjikent. The rocks are accessed through the garden of a restaurant with a crystal clear stream which is being used to farm carp.
The rock art is believed to be around 10,000 years old. Limited archaeological activity has sought to find other signs of life but unsuccessfully. However, locally it is believed that for almost 1,000 years up to the beginning of the 16th century, the same location was a staging post on the Great Silk Road where goods were transferred from horses arriving over the mountains to the east, to camels for onward travel across the steppes and desert. The evidence is ancient mulberry trees and Asian sycamore trees in the restaurant’s garden which are not indigenous and are up to 800 years old.
The guide spent his childhood in this area and became an adept climber as a teenager practising on the rocks.
Shilli-Fully Travels 