Prehistoric Petroglyphs of Mongolian Altai, Bayankhongor, Mongolia. These three rock art sites in Bayan-Ulgii aimag - Tsagaan Salaa-Baga Oigor of Ulaankhus soum and Upper Tsagaan Gol (Shiveet Khairkhan) and Aral Tolgoi, both of Tsengel soum. All three are located in high mountain valleys carved out by Pleistocene glaciers.

These three property components include large concentrations of petroglyphs and funerary and ritual monuments reflecting development of human culture over a period of 12,000 years. Persistent relationships between rock art, surface monuments and the larger physical context of rivers, ridges and cardinal directions create a vivid sense of integration of human communities with land they inhabited. Earliest images reflect a period beginning in Late Pleistocene and lasting through the Early Holocene (11000-6000 years BP), when the paleoenvironment shifted from dry to forested steppe and the valleys provided an ideal habitat for hunters of large wild game.

Later images from middle Holocene (6000-4000 years BP) reflect gradual reassertion of steppe vegetation in this part of the Altai and early emergence of herding as the economic basis of communities. Imagery from succeeding, Late Holocene Period, reflects transition to horse-dependent nomadism during Early Nomadic and Scythian periods (1st Millennium BC) and subsequent spread of steppe empires in later Turkic Period (7th-9th Century CE).

Petroglyphic Complexes of Mongolian Altai represent most complete and best preserved visual record of human prehistory and early history of a region at intersection of Central and North Asia.

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