Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Turkistan
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200 m
Turkistan
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Top Sights
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Yasaui Mausoleum ...............................A2
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0.1 miles
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B
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9
66
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8
Yesimkhan
alany
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Sights
2
Friday Mosque.......................................A2
3
Hilvet Semi-Underground Mosque ....A2
4
Historical-Cultural-Ethnographic
Centre..................................................B2
5
History Museum ...................................B2
6
Mausoleum of Rabigha-Sultan
Begum.................................................B2
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1
Kazkom
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10
7
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6
›
(1.2km); (1.5km);
(4.5km); Sauran (50km)
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£
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5
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Defensive
Wall
Yasaui
Mausoleum
Shymkent
(165km)
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6
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Sleeping
7
Hotel Edem............................................ B1
8
Hotel Sabina .......................................... B1
9
Hotel Turkistan ..................................... A1
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6
2
Rose
Garden
3
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2
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Eating
EdemRestaurant.......................... (see 7)
10
Kafe Aspan............................................. B1
in Samarkand, and has no rivals in Kaza-
khstan for man-made beauty.
Turkistan was already an important trade
and religious centre (under the name Yasy)
when the revered Sufi teacher and mysti-
cal poet Kozha Akhmed Yasaui came to live
here in the 12th century. Yasaui was born at
Sayram, probably in 1103, underwent ascetic
Sufi training in Bukhara, then lived much of
the rest of his life in Turkistan, dying here
about 1166. He founded the Yasauia Sufi or-
der and had the gift of communicating his
understanding to ordinary people through
poems and sermons in a Turkic vernacular,
a major reason for his enduring popularity.
Yasaui's original small tomb was already
a place of pilgrimage before Timur ordered
a far grander mausoleum built here in the
1390s. Timur died before it was completed
and the main facade was left unfinished -
today it remains bare of the beautiful tile-
work that adorns the rest of the building,
with scaffolding poles still protruding. From
the 16th to 18th centuries Turkistan was the
capital of the Kazakh khans.
Coming by road from Shymkent, you can
disembark your minibus when the mauso-
leum looms into view on your left as you
enter Turkistan.
1
¨Sights
The Yasaui Mausoleum sits amid pretty
grounds which contain several lesser
monuments.
o
Yasaui¨Mausoleum¨
mAUSOLEUm
(
h
7am-9pm approx may-Sep, 9am-1pm & 2-6pm
rest of year)
F8
The main chamber is capped
with an 18m-wide dome, above a vast,
2000kg, metal
kazan
(cauldron) for holy wa-
ter, given by Timur. Around this central hall
are 34 smaller rooms on two floors. Yasaui's
tomb lies behind an ornate wooden door at
the end of the main chamber: you can view it
through grilles from corridors on either side.
The right-hand corridor contains the tomb of
Abylay Khan, leader of Kazakh resistance to
the Zhungars in the 18th century.
Off the main chamber's far left corner
is the mausoleum's carpeted mosque, with
a beautifully tiled
mihrab
(Mecca-facing-
niche). Except in the mosque, visitors to
the mausoleum don't usually remove shoes
though women normally wear headscarves
(available at the entrance).
The glorious blue, turquoise and white til-
ing on the outside of the building merits close
inspection. Note the particularly lovely fluted
rear dome, above Yasaui's tomb chamber.
Historical-Cultural-
Ethnographic¨Centre¨
mUSEUm
(Tarikhi-madeni-Etnografiyalyk Ortalyk; Tauke Khan;
admission 200T;
h
9am-7pm)
This big, proud
new museum has three floors of colourful
exhibits on regional history, from prehistor-
ic petroglyphs to the obligatory Nazarbaev
homage on the top floor. Much of the mate-
rial is paintings, maps and dioramas, since
the collection of actual artefacts is sparse
before the 19th century. Explanatory infor-
mation is in Kazakh only, but free tours in
English are available.