Stone woman

About sixteen kilometers from the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, near the modern village of Praporshchikovo, there is a place called Kyzyltal. In ancient times, there was a large settlement here. In the lowland where the Kyzyltal valley begins, on the southern side, there is a dense forest of willows and poplars, resembling a sheep pen in its outline.

On the northern side of this small forest, on a grassy rise, old burial mounds and stone embankments were visible from afar. During the Soviet era, the stones were removed and the land was plowed, turning it into agricultural land. Not far from these burials, a stone statue of a woman with a jug once stood. Local residents have passed on various legends about the origin of this statue from generation to generation.

One of the legends tells of a girl who disobeyed her parents and, without receiving their blessing, married her beloved. Her father cursed his daughter in anger, and her mother, filled with despair, asked the Almighty to punish her. Allah heard their prayers and turned the girl into stone.

According to another legend, in ancient times, a man without heirs was buried in one of these graves, and with him, all his wealth. According to Sharia law, no one dares to disturb the peace of the deceased, and for many years no one dared to disturb this grave. But one day, a greedy woman, overcome by a thirst for gold, decided to dig up the treasures under cover of night.

She dug until dawn until she came across a golden jug. However, as soon as the first ray of sun touched the ground, she turned into a stone statue while holding the find in her hands.

In the morning, the villagers noticed a new high stone monument among the graves. Gathering at the cemetery, they saw an opened grave and their fellow villager frozen in stone. The people covered the grave with earth again, and left the cursed woman in the same place – so that she would guard the peace of the deceased from those who would dare to encroach on their wealth.

Years passed. During the Kazakh-Dzungarian wars, local residents left these lands, fleeing disasters, and soon Russian settlers settled here, founding the village of Praporshchikovo.

One day, one of the peasants saw a stone statue of a woman and decided to take it to decorate his yard. But from that day on, his farm fell into decline: first, the chickens and geese began to die, then one by one, the domestic animals died. Soon, his wife died too.

The shocked peasant, who had never encountered such a misfortune before, returned the stone monument to its original place after his wife’s funeral. That same night, he dreamed of a stern and menacing Kazakh woman, whose voice sounded in his dream: “You returned me, but you put me crooked!”

The next morning the peasant came to the cemetery again, straightened the statue and left it alone. From that day on, troubles left his house and his farm became prosperous again.

After this incident, settlers, especially Old Believers, tried to avoid old Kazakh cemeteries, fearing even to approach them. They say that over time, the stone figure disappeared, slowly settling into the ground. But the fear of this place remained in the memory of generations – and for a long time no one dared to set foot on this land.