Till nowadays the Por-Bajin fortress keeps its mysteries and secrets. What was it constructed for? Who lived behind its walls? Whether infinite treasures from local legends are hidden in the vaults of Por-Bajin? Why the remains at least of one person - inhabitant of Por-Bajin were not discovered?

The well histories and ears of the khan

The local residents have a legend about the fortress and the Tere-Khol Lake: "Earlier in ancient immemorial times, when there was no lake here, which now people call Tere-Khol, lived here Elcigen-khan (khan the donkey). Since his birth the Khan had donkey ears, therefore he was called so. One morning he saw water coming from the well behind the walls. There was so much water that there was a threat of flooding the fortress. Khan was frightened and quickly ran away in the forest with his servants. From the top of the nearest mountain, everybody saw that the fortress was surrounded by a great lake. The Khan stood up, made a hopeless gesture aside the lake and exclaimed: “Ter hol, Ter hol!”. “Ter” in Mongolian means – “this” and “hol” in Tuvinian means “lake”. Today this legend is confirmed by scientific research. By means of space monitoring geologists managed to see the road located on the bottom of the lake.