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Olzhabai and Zhasybai.

Adventure travel  in  Bayanaul park.

“Nature abhors annihilation” 

Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Inbound tourism in Kazakhstan.

In the history of the Kazakh people, the XVIIIth century is one of the most memorable times. It was an era of heroic events and is embodied in people’s memory as “Aktaban shubyryndy.” Those hard times of defending the freedom of Kazakh people produced many heroic persons.
One such hero was Olzhabai, a talented leader of the liberation struggle against the Dzungars (also known as Kalmaks). In 1741, when Ablai, head of the Middle Horde, was taken prisoner by Galdan Tseren, the Dzungars wanted to capture the Karkaraly and Bayanaul steppes from the Irtysh side.
They raided peaceful villages, stole cattle, robbed people and burned their homes. Olzhabai, with his brave nephew Zhasybai and other relatives, immediately organised militias to repel the enemy. First, the enemies met the soldiers of Zhasybai.
They twice broke the Dzungarian troops, knocking them out of Zhambak (a valley in Bayanaul). Zhasybai was killed in the battle by an arrow from an ambush. When Olzhabai learned about it, he raised the fighters and rushed to catch the retreating Dzungars without giving them time to recover.
Thus, Olzhabai defeated the enemies. Since then, the mountains on the border of the Bayanaul and Mai districts of the Pavlodar region are known to locals as Kalmak-kurgan, translated from Kazakh as the “site of Dzungar’s death.”
The people also renamed Lake Shoinkul in memory of Zhasybai, the young warrior.

Authority:
By Sergey Gorbunov in Kakahstan Tourism on 27 January 2015. Https://astanatimes.com/2017/04/turgay-geoglyphs-can-help-reveal-nomadic-secrets-says-discoverer/