Issues of the Preservation and Conservation of the Petroglyph in the Khoid Tsenkher Cave

¹ School of Business, Mongolian University of Humanities, 14200-0031 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
² School of Engineer and Technology, Mongolian University of Life Sciences, 17024 Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
³ Institute of Geographical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

^* Corresponding author: khishigdalai@humanities.mn

Abstract

The Khoid Tsenkher Cave is located 28 km away from the center of Mankhan soum, Khovd province in Mongolia. The cave contains about 40,000-year-old petroglyphs. A variety of animals were depicted on the surface of the rocks, such as ostriches, camels, lions, elephants, and buffaloes in red and light brown paints. These images prove the existence of the animals that became extinct a long time ago. These petroglyphs play an important role in the research of the history and culture of the Paleolithic period of the world due to its visual content and design methods. Unfortunately, 64 images and symbols were faded and became unknown due to the wrong action of the people and new carvings have been created on them. The cave is visited by about 5,000 international and domestic tourists a year, but they cannot actually see the main attraction and do not have the chance to understand its great value. Therefore, there is an opportunity to develop tourism by involving local people in the preservation and conservation process of the cave and its historical and cultural monuments.