CHIL USTUN

 
To the West of Osh, near the Uzbek border is the village of Aravan. Nearby, in the limestone hills that make up the foothills of the Ak Bura and Aravan river basins lie the Chil Ustun cave system that is named after the stalactites that can be found here, (Chil Ustun is Tajik and means «40 columns»). 

There are other systems which riddle the hills around here. 

The main cave of Chil Ustun is 380 meters long and consists of three spacious halls connected by narrow, winding corridors. 

The third chamber is over 100 meters long, 20 meters high and at its widest point over 50 meters wide. From the ceiling hang stone «chandeliers», the walls are covered with tinted crystals, numerous ancient drawings and inscriptions in a variety of languages including Sanskrit. 

The crystals react by producing different sounds when the wind blows. It is thought that the caves have curative properties.

About 20 km south of Chil Ustin the ruver Aravan carves a deep, curved, canyon through Mount Tuya-Muyun. In the walls of the canyon is the deepest cave in Kyrgyzstan — the Fersman precipice — which reaches a depth of 240 meters. Nearby, also, are the Bolhaya, Azhiadar Unkur, Surprise andf Pobednaya caves — in Azhiadar Unkur there is a large colony of bats.