About the book: year / This novel is about a queen who witnessed and became a victim of fatal changes in the life and spirit of her people. The plan was based on a scientific sensation - a unique burial of a young woman, discovered in 1993 in the border zone of Altai, on the high mountain plateau of Ukok. Not only the mummy was perfectly preserved, but also the clothes, the wig, amazing in its splendor and height, and ritual paraphernalia. Legends about ancient heroic maidens, guardians of the Altai people, surfaced, and interest in the culture of the inhabitants of the Altai mountains in the 8th–6th centuries flared up. BC e. The mounds of this culture, conventionally called Pazyryk - after the Pazyryk tract, in which the largest and richest mounds were excavated - have been known to science since the end of the 19th century. But despite all the wealth of finds, the idea of ​​the ancient inhabitants of Altai is still very fragmentary. The alleged relationship of the Pazyryk people with the Scythian, Persian, and Iranian cultures has been established. The conclusion is drawn about their belligerence. Their skillful blacksmithing, the use of mercury to produce the finest gold, subtle tattoos on the body, musical instruments - drums and a harp similar to a Chinese zither - all this significantly distinguishes the Pazyryk people from the peoples neighboring them. But it was never possible to restore their history . It is not known for certain where they came to this land or where they went. Their culture did not last long. The number of burials is also small in comparison with the area they supposedly inhabited. The origin of the Pazyryk people is also unclear. Before the first DNA tests, these people were considered the ancestors of modern Altaian Turks, but now it is clear that they belonged to the Caucasian type with little interference of Mongoloid blood - most likely as admixtures of neighboring peoples. Despite this, in the minds of modern Altai people, the Pazyryk people have become their ancestors. Irina Bogatyreva does not consider her novel either a historical reconstruction or an experience in the fantasy genre. And here one cannot but agree with the author. Her work forces one to live the universal laws of human existence - albeit in the space of a world about which it is only known that it existed and has irrevocably sunk into oblivion. Before us is a work with a classic literary task - artistic comprehension of the elusive secrets and truths of life.