Kyrgyz literally means ‘we are forty’ and Kyrgyzstan is where the famous warrior Manas united 40 clans against the Uyghurs. By the Kazakh border on the Silk Route, and in the shade of the Saryaygyr mountains is the Kakyra Valley, where great burial mounds can be seen dotting the tall grass. Their embankments are of mud and stone. The biggest pile among them is San Tash, about four metres high and 56 metres in diameter. It dominates the centre of the valley and is named after a mountain pass nearby. San Tash means ‘the counting stones.’ But there are more than 40 of them.