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- For a site located in Balochistan
Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan by geographical area, constituting approximately 48% of the total area of Pakistan. At the 1998 census, Balochistan had a population of roughly 6.5 million. Its neighbouring regions are Iran to the west, Afghanistan and the North West Frontier...
, PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
known by the same name, see Takht-e-SulaimanFor a site in West Azarbaijan, Iran known by the same name, see Takht-i-Suleiman
For a site located in Osh, Kyrgyzstan known by the same name, see Sulayman Mountain...
For a site in West Azarbaijan, IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
known by the same name, see Takht-i-SuleimanFor the similarly named locations see Takht-e Suleyman Massif in Iran, Takht-e-Sulaiman in Balochistan, and Sulayman Mountain near Osh, Kyrgyzstan.Takht-e Soleymān, is an archaeological site in West Azarbaijan, Iran...
The
Sulayman Mountain (also known as
Taht-I-Suleiman,
Sulayman Rock or
Sulayman Throne) is the only
World Heritage SiteA UNESCO World Heritage Site is a site that is on the list that is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 state parties which are elected by their General Assembly for a four-year term.A World Heritage Site is a...
in the country of
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/528 It is located in the city of
OshOsh is the second largest city in Kyrgyzstan, located in the Fergana Valley in the south of the country and often referred to as the "capital of the south". The city is 3,000 years old. It is notorious in the Russian-speaking world for the bloody interethnic Osh riots of 1990.Osh has served as the...
and was once a major place of
Muslim:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits ". Muslim is the participle of the same verb of which Islam is the infinitive. Muslims believe that there is only one God, translated in Arabic as Allah...
and pre-Muslim pilgrimage. The rock rises abruptly from the surrounding plains of the
Fergana ValleyThe Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley is a region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.-Geography and geology:...
and is a popular place among locals and visitors, with a splendid view.
Sulayman is a prophet in the
Qur'anThe Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam...
, and the mountain contains a shrine that supposedly marks his grave. Women who ascend to the shrine on top and crawl though an opening across the holy rock will, according to legend, give birth to healthy children. The trees and bushes on the mountain are draped with numerous "prayer flags", small pieces of cloth that are tied to them.
According to the
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
, the mountain is "the most complete example of a sacred mountain anywhere in
Central AsiaAsia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south. It is also sometimes known as Middle Asia or Inner Asia, and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent.Various definitions of its...
, worshipped over several millennia".
http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/529 The site is still a popular place for local Muslims, with stairs leading up to the highest peak where there stands a small mosque originally built by Bobur in 1510 and much reconstructed in the late 20th century.
The rock also contains a museum that was carved during the Soviet era, showing archeological findings from the area and its history. The lower slope of the mountain is surrounded by a
cemeteryA cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term cemetery implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are the place where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
.