Yalchuk is the moon goddess in

Turkic mythology Turkic mythology refers to myths and legends told by the Turkic people. It features Tengrist and Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic and warrior way of life of Turkic and Mongol ...

. In ancient Turkic folk religion and myth, Yalçuk is the divine embodiment of the

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

. She is often presented as the female complement of the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

(

Koyash Koyash ( Orkhon: 𐰸𐰆𐰖𐰽𐰴) is the god of sun in Turkic mythology. Kök Tengri created the earth with rays of sun light, thus, Koyash took part in the creation of Earth. Solar rays are also considered to be "strings" between the Sun a ...

) conceived of as a god. Koyash and Yalchuk are categorized as among the visible gods. Yalchuk is said to have lived on a mountain top in a house with seven stories, from which she controlled the fate of the world. Yalchuk is often depicted driving a two-yoke

chariot A chariot is a type of cart driven by a charioteer, usually using horses to provide rapid motive power. The oldest known chariots have been found in burials of the Sintashta culture in modern-day Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia, dated to c. 2000&nbs ...

, drawn by horses or oxen. Like her companion Koyash, the Sun, who drives his chariot across the sky each day, Yalchuk is also said to drive across the heavens. She has power horns on head. She is commonly depicted with a crescent moon, often accompanied by stars; sometimes, instead of a crescent, a lunar disc is used. Often a crescent moon rests on her brow, or the cusps of a crescent moon protrude, horn-like, from her head, or from behind her head or shoulders. The word Yalçuk means bright or shining. Another meaning of the word is envoy or delegateKÚNOS, Dr. Ignaz (1902). Şeyh Süleyman Efendi, Çağatayca-Osmanlıca Sözlük, Section Orientale de la Société Ethnographique Hongroise.

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