Megaliths stone circles

Whispers of Stone megaliths of yasin valley 

In the shadow of the Hindu Raj mountains, the Yasin Valley cradles its ancient sentinels eight megalithic stone circles, their origins lost to time. Scattered across villages like Manich, Bojayot, Asqorthan, Borukut, Seli Harang and Barhandas, these colossal boulders form silent rings, their edges worn smooth by centuries of wind and rain. Each circle rises in staggered layers: towering base stones, some weighing tons, anchor the structures, their surfaces pitted and weathered, while smaller, flatter slabs rest atop them like ancient crowns. This deliberate stacking massive below, refined above hints at a forgotten engineering prowess, as if giants or gods once labored here. 

Once sixteen, half now lie destroyed: dynamited by treasure hunters, dismantled for roads, or swallowed by the valley’s relentless growth. 

Local legends cling to the stones. Elders whisper of fairies who dragged the boulders into place under moonlight, for no mortal could lift such giants. At Barhandas, where the megaliths cluster like a council of elders, the air hums with stories of spirits guarding buried gold. Yet no treasure has ever been found only fragments of bone and pottery, silent testaments to forgotten rites. 

Archaeologists trace echoes of Central Asian kurgans in their circular forms, gravel-filled pits hinting at Scythian Burials who may have crossed the Darkot Pass millennia ago. But unlike the gold laden tombs of the steppes, Yasin’s stones guard simpler secrets: communal feasts, warrior burials, or celestial alignments. Their uniqueness defies easy explanation no similar structures exist in other parts of Gilgit and Chitral.

Time gnaws at their edges. At Bojayot, farmers till soil around half buried stones; at Asqorthan, graffiti mars surfaces once carved with cryptic symbols. Treasure hunters still come, lured by myth, leaving scars in the earth. Each destroyed circle erases a chapter of the valley’s past, a language of stone now fading into rumor. 

Yet hope persists. Scholars rally to map the remaining eight, while locals slowly awaken to their worth not as gold vaults, but as roots.

The megaliths endure, not as relics, but as questions. What voices lie trapped in their gravel? What hands raised them? In their silence, they challenge the valley to listen. 

Archeology  of Gilgit-Baltistan  

Archeological  sites of Pakistan,