Kazakhstan - Central Asia - page 81

lands meet wooded foothills, and in the
main access town Lenger.
Good outings include horse or 4WD trips
to the western end of the spectacular Aksu¨
Canyon from Tonkeris, foot or horse day-
trips into Kaskasu¨ Canyon from pretty
Kaskasu village, and the highlight two-to-
three-day camping trip by foot or horse to
beautiful Susingen¨Lake from Kaskasu or
Dikankol. This high-mountain lake empties
at the end of June when the ice blocking its
outlet melts, and does not fill again until
the winter freeze. Horse trips cost around
15,000/25,000T per day for one/two people
including meals and guide.
It's best to make contact in advance with
the community tourism organisation Ugam¨
Public¨Association ( % director 701-222 0328,
director's English-speaking son Askar 701-111 8192,
office 75247-6 29 92; www.ugam.kz; Tole Bi, Lenger;
h office normally 9am-6pm mon-Fri) S , directed
by ex-airforce pilot Alikhan Abdeshev. The
office, down a lane beside the Ostanovka
Voenkomat bus stop in Lenger, is about
15 minutes' walk from Lenger bus station.
Community-tourism prices are 3000T to
5000T per day for a guide, 15,000T per day
for an English translator, 3000T to 5000T
per day per horse, and 5000T per person for
homestays including three meals. The park
entrance fee is 450T per person per day.
The homestays have comfortable beds in
clean rooms, and traditional banyas (bath-
houses), and serve good local food. Except at
Lenger, toilets are outside. At Kaskasu and
Lenger you can sleep in yurts.
Lenger is 27km southeast of Shymkent;
Dikankol is 47km, Kaskasu is 57km and
Tonkeris is 70km. Ugam Public Association
offers car transfers for 60T per kilometre.
Marshrutkas (150T to 200T, 45 minutes),
shared taxis (200T) and much slower bus-
es to Lenger leave frequently (about 7am
to 6pm) from the Voenkomat bus stop on
Tole Bi in Shymkent. For Dikankol, Kaskasu
and Tonkeris marshrutkas (400T to 600T,
one to 1½ hours, every two to three hours),
buses (around 300T, 1½ to two hours, three
or four times daily) and occasional shared
taxis go from Tashenov near Shymkent's
Central Bazaar. Shared taxis run to Kaskasu
from Lenger's market.

and Europe might have been spared Mongol
carnage if Otrar's Khorezmshah governor
had not had Chinggis Khan's merchant-
envoys murdered here in 1218. In reprisal
for the envoy outrage, the following year
Chinggis' forces mercliessly trashed Otrar,
which until then had been one of the most
important Silk Road towns in the fertile Syr-
Darya valley. It was rebuilt afterwards but
eventually abandoned around 1700 after be-
ing trashed again by the Zhungars (Oyrats).
Today it's just a large dusty mound, known
as Otyrar-Tobe ( h approx 8am-dusk) F ,
11km north of the small town of Shauildir,
but archaeologists have exposed some inter-
esting sections: a now partly reconstructed
bastion and piece of city wall, the pillar
stumps of the main mosque, low walls of the
14th-century Palace of Berdibek (where that
other great pillager, Timur, died, en route to
conquer China, in 1405), a few residential
areas and a bathhouse. In its heyday Otrar
spread over nearly 10 times the area of the
mound itself.
En route from Shymkent, stop at the
good Otrar¨Museum ( % 72544-2 11 50; Zhibek
Zholy 1) in Shauildir (closed for renovations
at research time but expected to reopen by
2014).
Three kilometres west of Otyrar-Tobe is
the Aristan-Bab¨Mausoleum , the tomb of
an early mentor of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui.
The existing domed, brick building here
dates from 1907 and is a stop for pilgrims
heading to Turkistan.
Minibuses (700T, 2½ hours) to Shauildir
leave about hourly, 7am to 6pm, from Shym-
kent's Samal bus station. Shared taxis from
Samal cost 1000T. A taxi from Shauildir to
Otyrar-Tobe, Aristan-Bab and back shouldn't
cost more than 2000T. There's no direct
public transport between Shauildir and
Turkistan, but a one-way taxi costs about
3500T including an hour's stop at Otyrar-
Tobe.

Turkistan ТУРКИСТАН

At Turkistan, 165km northwest of Shym-
kent (an easy day-trip), stands Kazakhstan's
greatest architectural monument and most
important pilgrimage site. The mausoleum
of the first great Turkic Muslim holy man,
Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, was built by Timur
in the late 14th century on a grand scale
comparable with his magnificent creations

Otrar
About 150km northwest of Shymkent lie
the ruins of the town that brought Chinggis
Khan to Central Asia. Much of the rest of Asia