An Intrepid Visit to a Not-So-Spooky Kazakh Graveyard

On Saturday I took a trek to the outskirts of the Mongolian city of Olgii, then headed northeast to a slope of shale on which is located the city graveyard. This is a not-so-typical graveyard. Without a speck of dirt anywhere in sight, the Kazakh inhabitants have had to make due with rocks for the walls of the plots and gravel for the grave mounds.

These telephone poles follow one of the main 'highways' linking Olgii to other cities and outposts in the wide (and wild) Mongolian west. The specks in the far distance are a pair of humans, out for a stroll.


The graveyard ...



An overhead view of the layout of the Kazakh graveyard.

The northern sweep of Olgii - a residential spraw. The houses and walls are made of something like white adobe.