This memorial complex, the name of which means 'Grave of Our Fathers' in Kyrgyz, commemorates a mass grave in which the bodies of 137 local intelligentsia were dumped on a single night of murders in 1938 during Stalin-era purges. The secret location of the site is said to have been passed down in a deathbed confession by a guard who witnessed the events of that night, whose daughter kept the dark secret herself until the country gained independence in 1991.
The small on-site museum offers insight into the people who are buried here, while beyond the main memorial are a large plinth commemorating those who died in the Urkun flight from Imperial Russian troops in 1916 towards the Chinese border, as well as a small white grave of national man of words Chingiz Aitmatov. The site is 25km south of Bishkek, off the roads towards Ala-Archa.
