The word’s most ancient towns sprang up in the fertile oasis of the steppes near the Syr-Darya River, where nomadic and settled civilizations met. For centuries a system of age-old caravan routes, leading from China to the Middle East and Europe, passed through this land. The towns located on the Great Silk Road – Taras, Otrar, Ispijab (Sairam), Yassy – whwere major trading centers in ancient and medieval times. The Silk Road (Zhibek Zholy in Kazakh) emerged as a trade route in the 3rd century BC and endured until the 16th century. A considerable part of the route – 1,700 kilometres – lay in present-day Kazakhstan.
Turkistan (Yassy) was regarded as spiritual and political centre of the Turkic-speaking peoples and was the original capital of the Kazakh khans. Sheikh Hodja Ahmed Yassaui – a Sufi mystic, poet and philosopher – was the spiritual leader of the Turkic peoples, and the legendary Tamerlane built a splendid banaka (Sufi temple) over Yassaui’s burial place in the 15-16th centuries. The Hodja Ahmed Yassaui Mausoleum is an unsurpassed masterpiece of medieval architecture, an amazing complex of palaces and temples with over 30 different rooms and halls. The main dome is over 40m in diameter and the minarets are 12m high. The elegant decor, patterned ceiling vaults and colorful majolica tiling capture the imagination. Also worth seeing are the town of Turkistan itself, the necropolis, other mausoleums, the Friday mosque, bathhouse, and part of the citadel’s fortified wall and gates. Turkistan is now 1,500 years old. On weekdays there are usually between 100 and 250 pilgrims visiting, and this number can swell to 1,000 people per day during religious holidays. According to popular belief, the road to Turkistan must cross the Arystan-Bab Mausoleum erected over the tomb of Ahmed Yassaui’s teacher, a famous religious mystic who lived in 12th century. The earliest part of the building dates of the building dates back to the Timurid era (14-15th centuries).
The ancient town of Otar (4th century BC) was an important trade centre. It wasknown for its mint and its extensive library, which equaled the greatest libraries of antiquity. The world- famous medieval thinker al-Farabi was born, lived and worked in Otrar. This unique town was razed to the ground by the Mongols in the late 13th century.
The mighty fortress of Sauran (10-18th centuries) is famous for its unique water supply system, thanks to which the town could withstand a siege for several months.
The Tomb of Domalar-Ana (early 20th century) was erected in the steppe not far from Turkistan in honour of a holy woman and clairvoyant named Domalak-Ana. A modern memorial in white marble was built on the site of the old tomb in 1998. Two stones which formerly stood on the grave are considered holy, and pilgrims will assure you that only a righteous person can pass between them.
The town of Taraz (Talas)- “city of merchants”- is more than 2,000 years old. It reached its zenith in the 10-12th centuries, when it was famous as the capital of the Karakhan state. You can step into the past at the Karakhan and Davudber Mausoleums, rules’ castles and many ancient burial-places. Just outside modern-day Taraz (15-18km away) are the Babaji-Kbatun Mausoleum (10-11th centuries) and Aisba-Bibi Mausoleum (11-12th centuries), masterpieces of ancient architecture that are listed as word architectural rarities by Unesco. The architectural form, decoration and artistic value of Aisba-Bibi are amazing.
Sairam (Ispijab, 6-18th centuries), a large, densely populated town, grew up atv the intersection of the ancient roads from Shash (Tashkent) to Shymkent. The Chinese traveler Xuan-Zang (629) mentions Sairam in his journal as the “town on the white river” Sairam has an abundance of sacred tombs and underground temples which are the pride of its citizens. The legendary Mount Kazygurt in the spurs of the Talas Alatau was, according to an old tradition, one of the places where Noah’s Ark rested during the Flood.
