The Golden Man---Kazakhstan

The land mass of Kazakhstan is the 9th largest nation in the world,
> bigger than western europe. Population 16 million of whom 1.6 live in
> Almaty. After the fall of the ussr the capital was moved to a new
> city, Astana, because almaty is entirely too close to the chinese
> border. It is a muslim nation since the invasion of the Arab Caliphate
> in the 8th century. Almaty was totally destroyed by the Mongol
> invasion in the 13th century, which empire lasted till the late 14th
> century when it imploded of its own weight. The uzbek Tamerlane ruled
> for a period then Kazak was free except for several invasions by the
> chinese and Russians. It has been a democracy since 1991.
> Here I had one of those priceless, unexpected experiences for which a
> traveler lives.Upon learning of my interest in archaeology, I was
> taken some 50 km out of Almaty to where a small museum had been
> recently constructed at the site of an ancient city and a number of
> tumuli-raised burial mounds, where the important people of the city
> had been buried. The city was one of the 18 Saka tribes spread across
> Kazakhstan who were kazaks ancestors, 8th century b.c.e. Herodutus
> wrote about them calling them Scythians. It was at this site than an
> archaeologist found the "Golden Man" who is now the post-communist
> country's symbol (on the flag astride a snow leopard, and everywhere).
> The discovered body was that of a young prince buried resplendently in
> 400 pieces of gold, head to foot. I was introduced to the now 76 year
> old archaeologist for whom the word spry must have been coined. After
> a Kazak bear hug and a loud greeting he stared at me for a full
> minute, then said, "back then," meaning the long ago past- "you are
> Kazak, follow me." Of course I've been told the same thing by
> Tibetans, Greeks, Turks, Welsh and Irish, so I'm proud to be a citizen
> of the world or a melting pot in and of myself. We walked a mile into
> the fields and sat on top of one of the tumuli, he said, to show
> respect for our ancestors. Through a translator he began to describe
> the Saka city which had been located in the foothills of the vast
> steppes in the distance. The Saka were ruled by a tribal council and
> there was no inter tribal war. There were extensive trade relations as
> goods of many far away countries have been found. He pointed to the
> location of the king's palace, where the nobles lived, and where the
> common people lived. We then discussed our theories of the origins and
> causes of war, and the origins in early humans of artstic and
> religious impulses. As we walked back after an hour or so, he said he
> now had two Ronalds--Reagan and myself--"no more Ronalds, enough."
> Another Kazak hug, he slipped thru the fence to the museum and was
> gone. Just another tuesday afternoon in Kazakhstan, right?
> As further evidence of my cliched theory that all peoples in all times
> are more or less the same, as we drove back into the city we passed a
> Bentley dealership and behind a gated enclave were spread a mile in
> each direction: McMansions- 10,000 sq ft closely bunched. Not without
> some corruption, the vast oil reserves, which may be as much as 1/4 of
> the reserves remaining on the planet, have been good to Kazakstan.
> And yes, I did meet Borat--he was selling trinkets in the bazaar,
> wearing a belt as old as he was, of which any cowboy would be proud,
> telling Kazak jokes.