Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
AKYRTAS
Lovers of myterious, remote ruins should venture out to Akyrtas, on the teppe 6km
south of Aksholak (Akchulak), a village and train tation 35km eat of Taraz on the Al-
maty road. What you'll ind here is a rectangular precinct about 180m long and 150m
wide with the low remains of massively thick perimeter walls built from 1.5m-long sand-
tone blocks, the bases of equally massive columns, jumbles of tones from around 100
rooms around a central open space, and evidence of an ingenious water supply sytem.
It's a place for the imagination, with no certainty about when it was built or even wheth-
er it was completed. The weight of opinion is that it was built as a summer residence for
a local Arab or Karluk Turk ruler between the 8th and 11th centuries.
Merke (Merki)-bound minibuses from Taraz bus tation, leaving between 6am and
6pm, will drop you at Aksholak for 300T, then you'll need a taxi from there.
2½ hours) go until about 10pm from
Zhansaya
Torgovy Tsentr
(Tauke Khan), a small shopping
centre 5km west of the centre.
rakhan had her tomb built on the spot, later
adding Babazha-Khatun's mausoleum, with
its unusual pointed, fluted roof (this building
was totally rebuilt in 2000-2002).
The mausoleums are about 300m (sign-
posted) south off the main road in the vil-
lage, where Shymkent-bound minibuses
from Taraz will drop you.
8
Getting¨Around
From the (westbound) bus stop across the road
from the bus station, marshrutkas 1 and 46 run
to Abay just south of Tole Bi in the centre; No 1
continues to the train station. From the stop im-
mediately to the right outside the train station,
marshrutkas 47 and 57 run to Abay just south
of Tole Bi, and marshrutka 40 and bus 40 head
through the centre on Kazybek Bi (westbound),
Kolbasshy Koygeldi (northbound) and Tole Bi
(westbound) and on out west to Zhansaya Tor-
govy Tsentr. Fares are 45T to 55T.
Shymkent
ШЫМКЕНТ
%
7252 / POP 650,000 / ELEV 510M
Southern Kazakhstan's most vibrant city,
with bustling bazaars and a lively down-
town, Shymkent (Russian: Chimkent) has
more of a Central Asian buzz on its leafy
streets than anywhere else in the country.
The Mongols razed a minor Silk Road stop
here; the Kokand khanate built a frontier
fort in the 19th century; Russia took it in
1864; and the whole place was rebuilt in So-
viet times. Little more than 100km from Uz-
bekistan's capital Tashkent, today Shymkent
is a thriving trade centre and also produces
cement, cigarettes and phosphates and re-
fines oil - and brews two of Kazakhstan's
best beers, Shymkentskoe Pivo and the
Bavarian-style microbrew Sigma. Its popu-
lation is about 65% Kazakh and about 14%
Uzbek. Mosquitoes can be an irritant from
June to August.
1
¨Sights
Central¨or¨Upper¨Bazaar¨
mARKET
(Ortalyk bazar, Verkhny rynok; Tashenov;
h
8am-
8pm Tue-Sun)
The central bazaar is now
somewhat diminished after the conversion
of its outlying sprawl into parks and the
removal of many traders to markets on the
city's outskirts, but it still bustles and is a re-
minder of Shymkent's long trading history.
Around Taraz
Aysha
-
Bibi &
Babazha-Khatun Mausoleums
In Aysha-Bibi village, 16km west of Taraz on
the Shymkent road, are the tombs of two
11th- or 12th-century women, legendary pro-
tagonists of a local
Romeo and Juliet
tale. The
Aysha-Bibi mausoleum, though heavily re-
stored in 2000-2002, is probably the only au-
thentically old building around Taraz. Made
of delicate terracotta bricks in more than 50
different motifs forming lovely patterns, the
building looks almost weightless. The story
goes that Aysha, daughter of a famed scholar,
fell in love with Karakhan, lord of Taraz, but
Aysha's father forbade them to marry. The lov-
ers swore a secret pact and Aysha eventually
set off for Taraz with her companion Babazha-
Khatun. Aysha collapsed from exhaustion/
sickness/snake bite; Babazha-Khatun rushed
to Karakhan, who raced to his beloved just
in time to marry her before she expired. Ka-
