Aulietau, Auliebulak
Located on the southern slope of Mount Aulietau in the Kyzylaray mountain massif, 12 km from the village of Shabanbai bi (Aktogay district, Karagandy region). Mount Aulietau is located in the upper reaches of the Karatal River, on the left bank. To the south of the mountain flows the Auliebulak River, the left tributary of the Karatal River. The cave is located 17 m above the base of the mountain in the depth of one of the crevices that cut through the slopes of the Aulietau.
The cave in Mount Aulietau was shown in 2015 by an employee of the Aktogay Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, Tungyshbay Mukan. In addition to Zh. Kurmankulov, S. Sadykov and L. Ermolenko, active participation in the exploration of the cave was also provided by B. Kazybayev, the Institute of Archaeology named after A. Kh. Margulan.
The cave is a part of the aulie complex of objects - here the word "aulie" is put in the names of the mountain and river - Aulietau, Auliebulak. The name of natural objects (mountains, rivers, caves, etc.) in the Arabic word aulie (aulia' - a plural form of the Arabic word "uali" - "saint") is fixed in the traditions of some Turkic-speaking peoples professing Islam, in particular Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Bashkirs. The veneration of nature's objects, rooted in pre-Muslim beliefs, is perceived in everyday life as belonging to the Muslim religion. T. Mukan, an employee of the Aktogay District Museum of History and Local Lore, says that the mountain with a cave and a stream, which gives rise to the Auliebulak River, has always been a place of pilgrimage for those in need of healing, as long as the old-timers remember.
According to the legend, the miraculous power of the stream was discovered by hunters, who watched as the wounded animals were healed, who fell into the water or plunged into it damaged limbs. The healing properties of the meadow adjoining the creek were also imparted, where the cattlemen drove sick rams for the night. The legends associated with the cave are not known. Walls, fragments of bottle glass on the floor and in the upper level pit of the cave, written in autographs, do not testify to the reverent attitude of contemporaries towards it. The cave, like the surrounding area, is currently visited by holidaymakers, but, according to T. Mukan, it is also visited by sick people or barren women who come to the tract in the hope of recovery.
The cave lies in a granite massif characterized by a horizontal formation structure and vertical fracturing. The dome above the cave is cut by a crack going in the meridional direction. The cave's axis is similarly oriented. Its south-facing entrance has an oval shape. The size of the entrance hole in the cross section is 4.75 m and the height is 3.6 m. The cave has a length of 20 m and a maximum height of 8.5 m. The structure of the cave is stepped three-level. The first (lower) level is a corridor with a length of 8 m. In the middle part of the corridor the ceiling drops significantly. The height of the corridor here is 2.2 m with a width of 3.75 m. On the sandy floor there are massive stone blocks, apparently split from the ceiling.
Inside the cave there are drawings. Red lines of different shapes and intensities can be seen on the ceiling and walls of the niche. Each of the levels was able to distinguish one drawing from the other. The ochre signs are found on several rock art monuments of North-Eastern and Eastern Kazakhstan, such as the rock on the north-western shore of Lake Zhasybai in Bayanaul, the Akbaur Grotto and others. Z. Samashev dates the drawings of Akbaur to the Paleometal Age, although he acknowledges the complexity of their dating. It should be noted that the signs found on the abovementioned monuments are not identical and among them there is no correspondence to the above mentioned signs from the niche. Despite these analogies, the interpretation of the drawings in the niche and cave of Aulie, with the exception of the deer figure, is problematic.
It is a tourist destination.