Jeti-Oguz: The Legend of the Seven Bulls and the Broken Heart

A short drive west of Karakol, the Jeti-Oguz valley opens up with one of the most striking sights in Kyrgyzstan: a row of huge red sandstone cliffs standing in a line like a herd of animals. Their name, Jeti-Oguz, means ‘seven bulls’. A little further up the valley rises a split red rock called the Broken Heart. The Kyrgyz have three legends about them — none of them happy.

1. The seven bulls

Long ago two powerful khans ruled neighbouring lands. The greedy and wicked one stole his neighbour’s beautiful wife, and the two clans went to war.

Clever advisers told the wicked khan: ‘Your enemy wants his wife back. Give her to him — but dead. He will have what he asked for, and he will never have her.’ The khan liked the advice. He called a great memorial feast in the mountains, and seven red bulls were slaughtered for the meal.

When the seventh bull fell, the khan himself drove a knife into the woman’s heart. Her blood splashed over the mountains — you can still see it on the red cliffs — and with the blood a boiling stream burst from the wound and flooded the valley. The guests and the whole clan of the murderer died in the hot water, and the waves carried the seven red bulls far down the valley, where they turned to stone.

2. The broken heart

An old, cruel khan with many wives saw a girl so beautiful that she seemed to be a daughter of the Sun. He sent his men to bring her to him at any cost.

But the girl had been promised since childhood to a young man, and they loved each other deeply. When they heard the khan’s riders were coming, they fled into the mountains. The riders caught them, killed the young man, tied the girl to a saddle and set off back to the khan. Over the high passes, in grief and despair, her heart gave out.

Where she died, a mountain rose. Stand at its foot and look up, and you will see the shape of a broken heart against the sky, with red clay running down its middle as if it were still bleeding.

3. The seven brothers

A rich old man had seven sons. When he divided his herds among them, seven calves went missing. Years later, after his death, the calves were found — grown into seven fine bulls. Each brother wanted the biggest and fattest for himself; the quarrel turned into a fight, and blood began to flow.

A wise old sorcerer saw that the brothers were about to kill each other. To stop them, he turned the seven bulls into seven blood-red rocks. They stand there still, not far from the south shore of Issyk-Kul.

The real valley

The hot water in the legends is real: Jeti-Oguz has warm mineral springs, and a sanatorium has stood at the mouth of the valley since Soviet times. Above it, the valley climbs through spruce forest to wide green meadows — the Valley of Flowers — where herders put up their yurts in summer, with views of the snowy Terskei Ala-Too.

Visit

Jeti-Oguz is an easy half-day trip from Karakol and a beautiful start for hikes and horse rides into the mountains. More legends and places: the Kyrgyzstan travel guide.