Hojapil Sanctuary
Protected area in Turkmenistan
Hojapil Sanctuary is a sanctuary (zakaznik) of Turkmenistan and a part of Köýtendag Nature Reserve. It was established in 1986.
Sites
Dinosaur Plateau
An inclined limestone slab—spanning about 0.5 km in length and 0.2 km in width—preserving hundreds of dinosaur footprints, is a popular tourist attraction. The site was discovered by Soviet geologists in the 80s; Turkmen scientists propose the evidence to be suggestive of three new dinosaur species: Gissarosaurus, Hojapilosaurus, and Turkmenosaurus. In local tradition, the footprints were cast by elephants belonging either to the forces of Alexander the Great or some returning pilgrim from India.
Kyrk Gyz Cave
A sacred site in Turkmen tradition, the floor of the cave has a tomb. Local legends explain the cave to have been created in an act of God, when 40 women—fearing capture by rogues—prayed for protection.
Umbardepe Canyon
A waterfall with a height of 27 meters is popular among tourists.
“Hojapil Sanctuary” enters the record as protected area in Turkmenistan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Hojapil, Sanctuary and Protected can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5877845. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1986.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hojapil Sanctuary” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.