Bazarbay Mountain

Bazarbay Mountain (Гора Базарбай) is a protected natural landmark in the Akbulak district of Orenburg Region, 10 kilometers northeast of the village of Novopavlovka, between the Ural and Ilek rivers. It is the highest point of the Ilek Plateau, rising 331 meters above sea level. The protected area covers 11.9 hectares.

Nature

The mountain is built of white-colored sands and pebble deposits from the Lower and Middle Jurassic. On the western slope these layers are exposed by an active quarry. On the flattened summit, next to ancient burial mounds, fragments of quartzite conglomerate can be found — they once formed a solid layer, of which only scattered blocks remain today. Bazarbay is considered a type of erosional remnant (a "ostanets"), preserved thanks to the durable quartzite-like Eocene rocks that resist weathering better than the surrounding strata.

History

Three Sarmatian burial mounds (kurgans) stand on the summit of the mountain. In ancient times Bazarbay served as a natural landmark on the northern branch of the Great Silk Road, alongside the neighboring mountains of Korsak-Bas (Fox Head) and Miltau.

Legend

A local legend is tied to the mountain. It tells of a young man named Bazarbay who grew up in an aul near the mountain and was engaged to an orphan girl, Maysara. After taking a job with a wealthy shopkeeper, he gradually forgot his bride, drawn in by money and trading trips to fairs. An old woman in the aul warned him that his growing greed would end badly. According to the legend, Bazarbay once dreamed he stood at a fork in the road: on one path Maysara called to him, on the other stood a huge grey spider. The dream did not stop him — he married the shopkeeper's daughter, and the abandoned Maysara threw herself off a cliff into the river and drowned. After his wife's death, Bazarbay withdrew into his wealth, grew wild and covered in hair, and settled in a cave on the mountain where he moved all his money. One day he vanished without a trace, and the cave entrance has been covered in cobwebs and overgrown with bushes ever since — neither Bazarbay nor his treasure has ever been found.

Getting there

The mountain lies in the Akbulak district of Orenburg Region, 10 km northeast of the village of Novopavlovka, on the border of the former Avangard and Voroshilov collective farm lands. The nearest landmarks are the road and settlements of the Akbulak district; the approach crosses open steppe, and there is no paved road up to the summit itself.