Categories
Asia central asia Kazakhstan

Turkestan

Stories and Photos from my travel to a 1600-year-old city in Kazakh desert.

Destination 》Asia 》Central Asia 》Kazakhstan 》Turkestan

Year Visited: 2019 – July

I visited Turkestan during my 3 weeks journey through Kazakhstan. While in Shymkent, I made a day trip from Shymkent to Turkestan. This was a very comfortable ride of just under two hours for 180 kilometers.

Turkestan (Turkistan) is a relatively well-preserved, 1600-year-old city in the Kazakh desert. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. Timur, the Turco-Mongol conqueror, commissioned the creation of a massive mausoleum in honor of the great Sufi Sheikh Khoja Ahmad Yasavi, which is to this day, Kazakhstan’s most prominent historical attractions. Turkestan is a major pilgrimage site in the Islamic faith, as well as a UNESCO World Heritage site. For this mausoleum, Persian master builders experimented with architectural and structural solutions which were later used in the construction of Samarkand, Uzbekistan. 

Below are pictures of the Timurid designs that contributed to the development of Islamic religious architecture all over the world.

The fort around the mausoleum is a newly built.
I like carving on this antique door.
The mausoleum of the famous Turkic poet and Sufi mystic, Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. The structure was commissioned in 1389 by Timur, who ruled the area as part of the expansive Timurid Empire. The Mausoleum was never finished because it ran-out of funding after Timur’s death.
Main entrance of The mausoleum, a typical architecture of Timurid design.
Interior of the mausoleum.
Interior of the mausoleum.
Back side of the mausoleum. The architectural and structural solutions were later used in the construction of Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
People are praying at the back side of the mausoleum.

I recommend spending minimum three hours exploring the mausoleum complex. The town itself is very small. After lunch in the town, my local friend helped me again to book a seat in a car coming back to Shymkent. 

Window on The World's avatar

By Window on The World

In May 2017, 23 days before I was going to complete 50 years, grabbed an opportunity and took an early retirement.. Picked up a backpack and traveling ever since.. Love to travel around the world, experience different culture, local cuisine & drinks .. and take pictures.. so far been to 108 countries and still counting...

Leave a comment