The exhibit and interactive installation demonstrates the famous stele of Kul-Tigin, which researchers dated to the first half of the 8th century. The exhibit item contains one of the first mentions of the ethnonym Tatars.

The stele comes from the Latin word stela — ‘pillar’. This was the name given to a stone, marble, granite or wood plate with carved texts or images. It was installed as a funeral or memorial sign. It should not be confused with a stella — an obelisk extended upwards.

The Kul-Tegin plate is not only a monument of the Turkic runic writing, but also a unique source on the history of one of the most important stages in the formation of statehood — the Turkic khaganates. Researchers assessed the stele as a kind of political manifesto which reflected the ideas of the statehood of the Turks. The text of the stele was attributed to dimensional prose, which had a sense of rhythm, but did not have rhyme:

The work has preserved the poetic breath of the ancient Turkic rhythm of the 6th — 8th centuries.

Kul-Tigin (684–731) was a political and military leader of a large ancient state — the Second Turkic Khaganate. During his reign, he got a victory in the war with China and concluded a peace treaty beneficial for the country, which expanded border trade — the Chinese emperor Xuanzong had to regularly send to the khaganate 100,000 pieces of silk for the agreed number of horses. In total, Kul-Tegin participated in 25 campaigns and 13 battles. ‘Kul’ meant ‘glorious’, and ‘tigin’ meant the prince of the Ashina dynasty.

In order to create the installation, the museum used a projection onto a glass screen with a height about two meters. The stele slowly rotates in front of the viewer — this allows you to see the runic inscription and Chinese characters which duplicate the text on one of the faces. The lines of poetry are translated into Russian, Tatar and English.