{"id":85864,"date":"2026-09-18T09:00:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T01:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85864"},"modified":"2026-09-18T09:00:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T01:00:59","slug":"ode-to-the-horse-5000-years-of-equine-domestication-on-display-in-new-kazakh-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85864","title":{"rendered":"Ode to the horse: 5,000 years of equine domestication on display in new Kazakh museum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On the scenic drive east from Almaty, in Kazakhstan, along the old corridor of the A351 highway, towards the Charyn Canyon National Park, and the Xinjiang border beyond that, sits an unassuming museum run by an unlikely duo.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Nurbol Baimukhanov, 50, is an independent, published researcher of <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">shezhire<\/em> \u2013 traditional Kazakh genealogies, historically memorised and passed down through generations \u2013 and an award-winning documentary producer who speaks in equal parts archaeology and mysticism. His son Ilyas, 23, with a MacBook tucked under his arm and an eye for systems, is pursuing a master\u2019s in management at Satbayev University, the nation\u2019s oldest technical institute.<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-inline-container e1a5rv550 css-1llrc1m e1yqhwb40\" data-qa=\"Component-renderMap-StyledDiv\">\n<div class=\"image-inline caption e1fvabeq0 css-19sk4h4 ea9pn0s0\" data-qa=\"Component-Container\">\n<figure class=\"image-inline caption ea9pn0s1 css-d3pq8q e1gf69pb0\" data-qa=\"ArticleImage-ArticleImageContainer\">\n<div data-qa=\"ArticleImage-handleRenderImage-ImageContainer\" class=\"css-bjn8wh e1gf69pb3\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Nurbol (left) and his son Ilyas, in front of their Ush Qiyan Open-Air Museum. Photo: Hei Kiu Au\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/img.i-scmp.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=contain,width=1024,format=auto\/sites\/default\/files\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/09\/14\/404b6459-db5c-49ce-b744-4f4b084b137a_58dda525.jpg\" title=\"Nurbol (left) and his son Ilyas, in front of their Ush Qiyan Open-Air Museum. Photo: Hei Kiu Au\"\/><\/div><figcaption data-qa=\"ArticleImage-DescriptionContainer\" class=\"css-1bj5zno e1gf69pb1\">Nurbol (left) and his son Ilyas, in front of their Ush Qiyan Open-Air Museum. Photo: Hei Kiu Au<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On a quiet stretch of the A351, father and son have built a showcase dedicated to the ancient Botai, the multi-hyphenate people of the Eurasian steppes \u2013 hunter-gatherer-herder-settlers \u2013 who some archaeologists believe were among the first to domesticate the horse more than 5,000 years ago.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Located around 70km from Almaty, the Ush Qiyan Open-Air Museum sits near the village of Akshiy, in the Enbekshikazakh district \u2013 the kind of place most travellers pass without noticing.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Opened this summer, it rises from the flat landscape as three circular log dwellings with sloping roofs \u2013 constructed from more than 1,000 logs, the exhibition brochure proudly proclaims \u2013 and is designed to evoke what some researchers believe are among the oldest known permanent settlements of the steppes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/postmag\/culture\/article\/3367421\/ode-horse-5000-years-equine-domestication-display-new-kazakh-museum?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the scenic drive east from Almaty, in Kazakhstan, along the old corridor of the A351 highway, towards the Charyn Canyon National Park, and the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4840],"tags":[1053,30198,12630,5734,8878,2383,7965,59],"class_list":["post-85864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel-globetrotting","tag-display","tag-domestication","tag-equine","tag-horse","tag-kazakh","tag-museum","tag-ode","tag-years","wpcat-4840-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}