Khakassia, with its over 30,000 monuments of ancient culture, is often called the "archaeological Mecca" of Siberia. lt is famous for its huge burial mounds which originally resembled the pyramids of the Egyptian pharaohs, and also for such archaeological finds as fine jewelry made of gold.

Khakassia is full of surprises. The Khakass stone idols ("stone women" as they are called there) are two thousand years older than the famous idols from Easter Island and are the predecessors of the totem poles of the American Indians. Today these huge statues, covered by a multitude of lines which are clearly visible when illuminated from different angles, are gathered in the Abakan ethnographical museum, though some still remain on the mounds in Khakassia. Researchers into the history of Siberia hold that about twelve millennia ago the people who created these idols lived for a while in a warm South-Siberian depression on their way from the Hindustan Peninsula to the American continent.
At first, the idols stood on the mountain tops or close to lakes and rivers which were considered sacred. Sacrifices were made at their feet. People used to believe that they could bring happiness and well-being. Every stone idol had its own name; they were associated with the most ancient cult of fertility as well as with the cosmogonic cults of the Sun, Moon and Sky. The Khakasses thought that these idols were a gift from heaven. Although the idols differ in form, they are all distinguished by their cosmogonic symbols: columns reminiscent of spaceships, rocks turned by ancient stonemasons into young girls' heads with their hair down. This represents a single canon of images which is born out by the symbol of the Sun on every statue.
The majority of Khakassia's ancient monurnents are attributed to the 7th-Ist centuries B.C. The tribes which inhabited Siberia at that time were contemporaries to the legendary Scythians. This is proved by such findings as objects decorated with pictures of a flying deer, playing lions, griffins and other Scythian symbols. In a burial mounds were many fine articles, including symbols of power, objects made of gold, weapons and clay vessels found. In the 2nd millennium B.C. Khakassia was one of the largest "oases" of culture in Asia. Local tribes were skillful in bronze casting and were wonderful constructors.

The ancient Khakass state which appeared in the 6th century had numerous warriors and by the mid-9th century had become the most powerful in Siberia. lt controlled a territory of several thousand square kilometres, stretching from Baikal in the East to the Golden Mountains (Altai) in the West, with a population of one million. lt traded in valuable furs, thoroughbred horses, weaponry and fossilised mammoth bones. The flourishing of culture culminated in the creation of an alphabet based on the local variant of the ancient Turkic alphabet. Ancient texts can still be seen on the rocks lining the Yenisei River.

The famous Eastern poet Nizami wrote in one of his verses about the state of the Khakasses with cities inhabited by philosophers, doctors and craftsmen. He composed his poein on the eve of the land's invasion by the hordes of Ghenghiz Khan, the Mongol ruler. The ancient Khakass state was the first to fall in the way of his tempestuous cavalry in the 13th century. The fertile lands were plundered and the towns ruined. Those who remained alive were taken prisoner.

The revival of the enslaved people began with the downfall of the Mongol-Tartar rule in Russia in 1380. In the early 17th century Russian trail-blazers began developing the vast territories of Siberia. Tsar Peter the Great signed a decree on the construction of a fortress town in the mouth of the Abakan River. This signified the unification of Khakassia with Russia, which protected the Khakass people from raids by Mongol feudal lords.

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