The legend of the creation of the land of Eastern Kazakhstan

(text provided by East Kazakhstan regional historical museum)

 When the Almighty sculpted the Earth and all the building material was used up, the result was a ball with mountains and deserts, steppes, forests, lakes, seas and rivers… The Creator looked at his creation and saw that there was a hole in the middle of the globe.

Then He began to take a little of everything from everywhere, from the great deserts, mountains, forests, steppes, and lakes of the Earth that He had created, in order to fill up the hole. When the work was completed, the Almighty examined the globe and saw that it was beautiful: it had everything – from golden deserts to shining ice and snow. The place where there was a hole turned out to be especially beautiful. The Creator breathed Life into his creation and everything on Earth came to life: the winds blew, the rivers flowed, the forests rustled, fish swam in the rivers and oceans, birds began to sing in the forests and steppes, animals appeared, and they all ran away, scattered and began to multiply.