Manas Statue

Address Ala-Too Square, Bishkek

A 26-metre bronze of Manas on horseback, holding a battle-axe and looking south towards the mountains, dominates the western end of Ala-Too Square. The statue was unveiled in 2011 to replace an earlier statue of Erkindik (Freedom) and to put a Kyrgyz national hero, rather than a Soviet figure or an abstraction, at the city's symbolic centre.

The plinth is taller than most visitors expect — get a few hundred metres back to see the statue at the angle it was designed for, with the Ala-Too range as backdrop.

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A story
The Epic of Manas — the foundational national poem of the Kyrgyz, recounting the deeds of the warrior-chief Manas and his descendants — is one of the longest oral epics in the world, with the longest recorded version running over half a million lines. UNESCO inscribed the tradition of manas-singing (manaschylyk) on its intangible heritage list in 2013.

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