Turkestan
This astoundingly beautiful, tiled mausoleum with a turquoise dome is home to Kozha Akhmed Yasaui. The main chamber is capped with an 18m-wide dome, above…
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Turkestan
At Turkestan (Туркестан) stands Kazakhstan’s greatest architectural monument and most important pilgrimage site: the mausoleum of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui. It was built by Timur (Tamarlane; 1336–1405) in the late 14th century on a grand scale comparable with his magnificent creations in Samarkand, and has no rivals in Kazakhstan for human-made beauty.
Attractions
Must-see attractions
Turkestan
Some 48km northwest of Turkestan stand the best preserved and most atmospheric ruins of all the many ruined Silk Road cities in the Syr-Darya valley. Its…
Historical-Cultural-Ethnographic Centre
Turkestan
This big, proud new museum has three floors of colourful exhibits on regional history, from prehistoric petroglyphs and household implements of the Kazakh…
Mausoleum of Rabigha-Sultan Begum
Turkestan
This small building with a tiled turquoise dome is actually a replica of the 15th-century original (which was torn down in 1898). Rabigha-Sultan Begum was…
Hilvet Semi-Underground Mosque
Turkestan
On a small hill within the Yasaui Mausoleum grounds stands the low-slung 12th- to 15th-century Hilvet semi-underground mosque, with the cell to which…
Turkestan
This 19th-century mosque displays a wooden minbar and some religious items dating back to the time of its construction. The wall outside the mosque and…
Turkestan
The History Museum, in the Yasaui Mausoleum grounds, focuses mostly on Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, Sufism and Islamic learning. There are models of the Yasaui…
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