Helan Mountain Rock Paintings

The understanding of Helan Mountain probably originated from Yue Fei's poem "Driving a long car to break through the gaps in Helan Mountain". It is not clear whether it is out of respect for Yue Fei or sympathy for this tragic character. A special feeling, I always want to set foot on this land full of war and smoke one day. However, due to time constraints, I ended up walking through a corner of Helan Mountain, even if I wandered at the foot of Helan Mountain for a while and felt a lot of emotion
In ancient times, Helan Mountain was the place where the Xiongnu, Xianbei, Turkic, Uighur, Tubo, Dangxiang and other northern minorities lived, lived and multiplied. They chiseled the scenes of production and life on the rocks of Helan Mountain to express their yearning and pursuit of a better life, and reproduced their aesthetic views, social customs and life interest at that time. In the hinterland of Helan Mountain, which is more than 200 kilometers long from north to south, there are more than 20 remains of rock paintings. Among them, the most representative ones are Helankou Rock Paintings.
Helan Mountain Rock Painting Scenic Area is located in Helankou, more than 50 kilometers away from Yinchuan City. There are more than a thousand petroglyphs with individual graphics distributed on both sides of the valley of more than 600 meters. The petroglyphs dating back four to five thousand years are rich in content and interesting in painting, and it is a veritable "art gallery" of the northern minorities.
We walked into the mountains to see the art gallery left by the ancient nomads.

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The most representative pattern in the rock paintings of Helan Mountain is the rock painting of a human face called "Sun God". The heavy-ringed eyes and short-cut eyelashes make the whole face look radiant; the semicircular outline and the incredible description of the nose and mouth bring us endless imagination; the majesty and kindness revealed in the stern expression make people feel Feeling awe involuntarily, smiling is not smiling, angry is not angry. His artistic attainment is no less than that of the world art master Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", even worse.
In ancient times, people attributed the bountiful harvest of livestock and the luxuriance of aquatic plants to the gift of heaven; while bad times and lack of food and clothing were considered to be the punishment of heaven for human beings. The sun is high above the celestial bodies and dominates all things, so people especially believe in the sun, so they personify the sun and portray it as it is now, expressing their worship of the sun. Some people also say that this is the head of an ancient tribal leader, and some leaders who have contributed to the clan and tribe are often engraved on the stone wall and become objects of worship and sacrifice.
Many people think that this human face is more like the face of a monkey or a bear intuitively. Some even say that its image probably shows aliens. For that.

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Looking at Helan Mountain from a distance, there are many peaks. Tens of thousands of years have passed, and that prehistoric barbaric era is gone forever. "Time is aphasic, but stones can speak." Today, with the help of ancient and mysterious rock paintings, we can still travel through time and space, talk to ancient ancestors, and understand and feel the life of that era.

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Go up the steps from the ticket gate, walk about 300 meters inward, and you can see the Helios Square "Helios Square" when you go straight. It is named after the most representative petroglyph in Helan Mountain - the Helios. At first glance, I don’t know what it is, but if you look carefully, you can vaguely see a face pattern of the "Sun God", which is enlarged at a ratio of 1:100. Wait until you enter the scenic spot to see the rock paintings of the Sun God. will be clearer.

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Going straight is the Yinchuan World Rock Art Museum. The Rock Art Museum is divided into 3 floors. The first floor is the main exhibition area, which mainly displays the history and famous collections of rock paintings from various countries in China and foreign countries. The second floor is the experience area, and the third floor is the exit.

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"Aphasia over the years, and the stone can speak" was written by the writer Feng Jicai. These eight characters were inscribed by him in front of the Helan Mountain, facing the primitive and simple rock paintings, feeling in his heart.

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The exhibition area of the Rock Art Museum covers an area of 2,000 square meters. Under the transparent glass floor in the center of the hall on the first floor, there is a world map composed of stones, which marks the rock art areas around the world.

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The museum displays the most representative boutique petroglyph catalogues, rubbings, imitations and real objects from 31 countries and more than 200 regions around the world.

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Through the exhibition, you can have a general understanding of rock paintings around the world

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Take a sightseeing bus for about 5 minutes. Sightseeing bus ride point: You must pass through houses selling souvenirs to reach the tour route. We arrived at the Rock Painting Relics Pit. The best time to visit is from the end of July to the end of August. Before that, it was the dry season, and many scenic spots (such as waterfalls, etc.) had no viewing effect.

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An artificial waterway is dug in the valley of the scenic spot, which completely dries up in the dry season, but it can be drained in case of heavy water in the rainy season, so as to avoid the impact of the water flow on the rock paintings on both sides.

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The rock painting sites are distributed on both sides of the valley and on the mountain. There are 2,319 groups and 5,685 pieces in total, representing the history of ancient humans in Helan Mountain. The life scenes of the ancient ancestors such as grazing, hunting, fighting, offering sacrifices, entertaining and dancing.

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On both sides of the valley, we walked clockwise, paying attention to every place marked with a red dot, which is where the petroglyphs have been confirmed. Due to the passage of time, many petroglyphs are very shallow and fuzzy. You really can't appreciate the beauty of this chiselled and polished gallery without looking closely.

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The painting is very rough, of course, it is a work left over from ancient times. In fact, it is not too far away to say that it is ancient. Most of it was done by the northern nomads in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods, and its significance is not aesthetics. It lies in the understanding of the aesthetic values of people in that era, what do they pursue, what do they like, what do they love, and what do they worship? There are more than a thousand petroglyphs with individual graphics distributed on the rock walls of the mountain stretching for more than 600 meters on both sides of the valley. The art style of the picture is rough and thick, the composition is simple, the posture is natural, and it has a strong realism. Most of them are portraits of people, and there are also animal figures such as cattle, sheep, horses, donkeys, deer, birds, tigers, and wolves.

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Tiger

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Symbols and human faces: The rocks here have experienced many vicissitudes of life and are severely weathered. The surviving pictures are also vague, but if you look carefully, you can see human faces, sheep, cows, horses and a lot of symbols. The largest human face on the right has a strange shape, the scale is about 1cm deep, the eyes and mouth are engraved, and there are raised beards on both sides of the cheeks.

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Petroglyph group: This stone slope is smooth and complete, located at the key point of the mountain pass, facing the east and facing the sun. It was once a good bedrock for the ancestors to create petroglyphs. There are many petroglyphs on this rock, with rich content and various themes. Dancing human figures... It seems to show us the sacred, solemn and sacrificial scenes of the past. However, due to the long history, the picture has been weathered and worn. Therefore, viewing is not complete and clear.

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Iconic paintings: There are dense rock paintings here, and many strangely shaped rock paintings of human faces and symbols have been carved. The most striking thing is the faces of the gods on the stone walls, all of which have unique shapes and expressions. It is a pity that a canal was built here to divert water, which caused serious damage to the rock paintings, which have been left for thousands of years.

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Animals and human faces: The petroglyphs here are composed of human bodies, animals, symbols, and human faces. Due to their elegance, they cannot be seen clearly, but the main part can still be distinguished. One of the human face portraits is closely connected with the tail of an animal. Some people think it is The scene of "animal master" reflects the concept of animal worship in the early ancestors

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"Human Face with Big Eyes", the two U-shaped eyes are huge and exaggerated, and there is a "ten" symbol in the middle of the forehead, which reflects the worship of Shengzhi. This picture is also known as the "Goddess of Shengzhi with Big Eyes".

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An inscription in the thirty-seventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty records the rebuilding of Helankou Shuiguan and Tuwei Pier by Ningxia town guerrilla general Pan Guozhen and Hongguangying guerrilla general Wen Yingkui. It is an important part of the military culture of Helan Mountain. part.

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Ape man watching the sky: Looking at the mountain from this angle, there is a natural rock statue, which looks like an ancient ape, standing proudly upright, looking up at the sky, as if guarding the valley

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father and son deer

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artificial waterfall

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Gaoyaozi: There is a huge rock on the slope halfway up the mountain, and there was a cave dwelling below it, hence the name "Gaoyaozi", which has now collapsed. The cave can accommodate seven or eight people, and the wall of the cylinder has obvious traces of being burned. There are stone tools and pottery fragments unearthed in the cave. According to expert appraisal, it is about 4500-5000 years ago

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natural waterfall

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"Helan Shanshuikou" This stone may have the word "Shuiguan" on it, and there is a stone wall left on it. It is an ancient flood control facility, which can slow down the flow of mountain torrents and relieve the impact of mountain torrents and debris flows on the mountain pass. Ming Wanli 37 been rebuilt

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"Giant Footprints": There is a pair of giant footprints engraved on this stone mill. Legend has it that they were left when giants opened mountains to fetch water. Footprint rocks are found all over the world. Scholars generally believe that those footprints endowed with divine power have extremely strong The inductive function seems to make women pregnant and have children once stepped on, which reflects the typical concept of reproductive worship

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glacier scratches

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Group portrait of human faces with an ax

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Monolithic petroglyphs

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"Hunting Picture", depicting a hunter drawing a bow and shooting an arrow in the back, with a group of running animals in front.

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"Open one eye and close one eye", this is the most expressive human face rock painting in Helankou Rock Paintings. The person in the painting has one eye open and one eye slightly closed, and there is a "ten" symbol on the forehead. The big eyes represent the sun, that is, "Yang", and the slightly closed eyes represent "Yin". This petroglyph reflects the cultural connotation of Shengzhi worship.

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Handprint Map" (see below the red arrow). On the cliff seven or eight meters above the ground, there are two handprints, human faces, animals and symbols.

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The "peach-shaped" human face on the top has double ring eyes, representing the gods. The two hands are of different sizes, representing two tribes with different strengths and weaknesses. There is a left arrow next to the little hand on the left, which means that the tribe of the little hand will leave this place and move to another place. There is a cow under the small hand, kneeling in the direction of the big hand, which symbolizes surrender. All the property of the small hand tribe belongs to the big hand tribe. People and gods jointly testify and "stamp the handprint", which can never be changed. Two ancient tribes recorded this historical event in the form of petroglyphs.

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The most famous "Sun God" petroglyph (see below the red flag). This petroglyph is located on a vertical rock wall 20 meters above the ground, and is the highest petroglyph found in Helankou.

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The image of the sun god in the rock paintings is majestic, with piercing eyes, overlooking the valley, as if the sun shines on all things. It is a typical representative of the combination of nature worship and god worship. The number arrangement of the radioactive light on the head of the sun god is 24, 12, and 6 respectively. Some scholars believe that it may be related to the 24 solar terms or the solar calendar in China. The pattern on the Sun God Square at the entrance of the scenic spot is carved according to this petroglyph at a ratio of 1:100.

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"Woman Flower", see red arrow. There are two sets of portraits on the stone wall, the upper one is surrounded by thirteen petals, and the facial contour is composed of "four tiles", which symbolizes women. The next one has a feather-like decoration on the top of the head and a beard at the corner of the mouth, which symbolizes men. In this petroglyph, women stand tall, showing their noble status, and seem to be the cultural relics of the matrilineal society.

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Inscription in Xixia script and human face. This stone wall is tall and complete, with many rock paintings and characters densely covered on it, most of which are human faces, and there are also inscriptions in Xixia characters.

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The headdress of the human face is very similar to the hair ornaments of the Xixia Dangxiang tribe. Xixia people regard it as "ancestor", so five characters are inscribed on the side of the portrait, which translates into Chinese meaning: "can prosper and rectify the Dharma".

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On this slope, which is 2.76 meters high and 4.08 meters wide, there are 20 human faces carved in different shapes and expressions. Below are pictures of people and horses and mating pictures from the same period, implying the mating and transmission of human fertility in ancient times, showing a strong mystery.

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Picture of two goats coming out of the pen: There is a petroglyph on the stone wall here, and two goats are slowly coming out of the sheep pen. The composition of the painting is unique and vivid, and it is the only rock painting with artificial buildings found in the rock paintings of Helan Mountain Pass. There is also a petroglyph on the stone slope on the right, which looks like a man or a bird. There are different opinions. What is it? Further research is needed to make a conclusion.

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Ming Jiajing Inscription: The inscription is inscribed on the seventeenth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (AD 1538), recording the situation of the court appointing four imperial envoys to build the Helan Pass and garrison

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cock hole

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Monkey Head: Here is a human face like a petroglyph, its left eye is sunken, its right eye is protruding, and it is wearing a small cap. Tathagata Buddha crushes Sun Wukong under the Five Elements Mountain.

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Group portrait

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While walking and watching, I walked out of the scenic spot after watching it unconsciously.

为照片关联地点