The Large Salbyk Mound, the largest in the Middle Yenisei basin, was investigated in 1954-56 by an expedition from the Institute of History of Material Culture and the Khakass Scientific Research Institute of Language, Literature, and History, led by S.V. Kiselev. These excavations prompted a reevaluation of previous notions about the development of the Tagar society.

The mound is located in the Salbyk area, 60 km north of Abakan. Its height is 11.5 m and its circumference is 496 m. In the Salbyk steppe, within a radius of about 5 km, there are 56 mounds, five of which are slightly smaller than the Large Mound, while the others mainly range from 4 to 6 m in height. A characteristic feature of the Salbyk group is the pyramidal shape of the mound, particularly noticeable in the morning and evening. Initially, according to S.V. Kiselev's calculations, the mound reached a height of 25-30 m. By the time of the excavations, it had significantly eroded but retained its proper shape due to turf blocks and a layer of clay material. In the western part of the mound, there was a pit with a diameter of up to 19 m and a depth of up to 5 m, left from the looting excavations of the 18th century.

The mound was surrounded by a square enclosure measuring 70 by 70 m made of Devonian sandstone slabs, rising 2 m above the ground. The enclosure is oriented to the cardinal directions with a slight deviation to the northeast. Massive steles stood at the corners, oriented with their narrow sides to the east and west. Between the corner steles, symmetrical steles were placed, five on the western side and four on the other sides. The outer slabs of the enclosure were reinforced with buttresses. Before the excavations, the enclosure was hidden under eroded layers of the mound, and the slabs were only visible at the corners.

On the eastern side of the enclosure, there was an "entrance" to the mound in the form of a 14-meter corridor, starting from the two middle steles and perpendicular to the eastern wall of the enclosure. The walls of the corridor made of slabs ended with two tall stone pillars. The entrance was blocked by a wall of slabs, and at the level of the eastern wall of the enclosure, five larch logs were laid between the steles.

Today, the Large Salbyk Mound serves as an open-air museum and a monument to the excavation leader, the renowned Soviet archaeologist Sergey Vladimirovich Kiselev.