Tucked away in the remote wind-swept folds of southern Kazakhstan are the ruins of a string of medieval Silk Road cities. A thousand years ago, these crumbling remains with their grand Sufi shrines were flourishing centres of trade, attracting merchants from far and wide; their glories held in awe across the golden steppes.

Welcome to Kazakhstan’s Silk Road heritage and its evocative treasures: The lost cities of Otrar and Sauran, and the cities of Turkestan, Taraz, and Shymkent which resolutely stood their ground.

The Silk Road, parts of which are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, was a trade route that operated from 114 BC to 1450 AD. Named after the primary product traded, the route comprised of a network of trails which cut across Central Asia, connecting the Far East with the Mediterranean. During its 1,600 years of existence, Chinese silk, along with spices, porcelain, and tea from the East were exchanged for horses, honey, and wine from the West.

It was a harsh terrain. Relentless. Fortified cities sprung up throughout the 6400-kilometre-long stretch to counter the bandits and uncertainty. Inside them, the traded goods changed hands, many times over, before reaching their destinations.

These cities were not just centres of trade, but also hubs of cultural exchange. A melting pot of ideas, philosophies, language, and faith. It is through the gatherings within their walls that Buddhism travelled from India to make a permanent home for itself in the Far East and Islamic science and knowledge fed into the western Renaissance.

Come along with me as I take you on a visual tour of this less visited, medieval side of Kazakhstan. On a journey back into time. 🙂

1. Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, the jewel in Medieval Kazakhstan’s crown

The colossal, albeit incomplete, UNESCO-listed mausoleum of 12th Century Turkic poet and Sufi saint Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is Medieval Kazakhstan’s most spectacular treasure. Timurid ruler Tamerlane [also known as Temur or Timur] had it personally built over a smaller 12th Century structure. Construction, however, came to an abrupt halt after his death in 1405 and was never resumed.

Prototype to the wonders of Samarkand, the 35-roomed fired-brick mausoleum which doubled up as a khanqah, and later as the Kazakh Khans’ palace [15th to 18th Century] stands in the Turkestan archaeological site. Blue glazed tiles, the Timurid trademark, embellish its outer and inner walls, painstaking created by the finest Persian craftsmen. Alabaster muqarnas crowd inside the mosque whilst Quranic verses encircle the towering 38.7-metre-high dome above, the largest in Central Asia.

Travel tip: Visit the 12th Century Hilvet Semi-underground Mosque [where Khoja Ahmed Yasawi preached] and the cell [where he wrote in isolation].

2. Arystan Bab, the 12th Century Sufi mystic who had lived for 400 years

Second in stature only to that of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi’s resting place is the mausoleum of his mentor Arystan Bab [aka Arslan Bab], also in Turkestan. Though rebuilt multiple times, the most recent being in the 20th Century, it comes with two fascinating legends. The first claims that when Timur tried to build the mosque in Yasawi’s mausoleum, it kept tumbling down until Yasawi appeared in his dream and instructed Timur to first build a mausoleum for his teacher. Which Timur did.

The second is more fantastical. It states Arystan Bab was a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. One day as they all sat seated, eating dates in the 7th Century, one of the fruits fell to the ground. At that instant the Prophet had a revelation: “This date is for the Muslim Ahmed, who will be born 400 years later than You.” Muhammad asked his companions who would like to volunteer for this task to which Arystan Bab replied “If you beg Allah to give me 400 years of life, then I will pass on this date.”

Travel tip: The brackish water from the well in the mausoleum complex is said to have healing properties.

3. The lost city of Otrar that stood up to Genghis Khan

Otrar, also spelt Otyrar, first finds mention in historical records in the 9th Century. It was an important Silk Road trading post and centre for ceramic production, minting its own coins. The city’s residents lived in clustered brick homes, bathed in plush public bathhouses with warm floors, and crafted beautiful pottery in their workshops. Arystan Bab, mentor of Medieval Kazakhstan’s most famous Sufi saint Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, preached here.

Such was Otrar’s economic and political clout, that it dared to defy Genghis Khan not once, but twice, inviting the latter’s wrath. In 1219, Genghis Khan attacked Otrar and massacred both its ruler and populace. But Otrar bounced back. Stronger and richer for another four hundred years, even after the end of the Silk Road trade, until it was attacked again and its irrigation system destroyed. This time the antagonists were Genghis Khan’s descendants, the Dzungar Khans. And this time it was the end.

4. The lost city of Sauran: Kazakhstan’s largest Silk Road trading post

Surrounded by desert, Sauran was fed by the kyaris water system, a web of subterranean clay pipes which carried water from the Karatau Mountains. It was one of the few cities to escape Mongol onslaught—its survival more to do with political savviness than military prowess. Perhaps taking a que from Otrar’s brashness and its subsequent razing, Sauran decided to adapt to regional political dynamics instead. Which worked to its advantage. Not only did Genghis Khan and his men bypass it on their marauding sprees, but the Mongol White Horde made it their capital, and Tamerlane turned it into a military fortress.

But it was not enough. When the overland Silk Road was replaced with maritime routes and the water sources in the mountains dried up, Sauran fell into oblivion and dust. The city was eventually abandoned in 1515. All that remains of the lost city are its walls, and ruins of homes, a central mosque, madrasah, and wells.

Travel tip: Combine Sauran with a visit to the Arpauzen Bronze Age petroglyphs.

5. Ancient Taraz with 40,000 artifacts and 3,000 monuments

When archaeologists stripped apart Modern Taraz’s centuries-old market in 2011, they were searching for a two-millennia-old Silk Road city by the same name buried underneath. They were not disappointed. 40,000 artifacts dated from the 6th to 12th Centuries, along with religious and secular buildings flanking paved streets and a network of clay water pipes were soon revealed. Today, the ancient city’s ruins form part of Kazakhstan’s largest archaeological park.

Named after the Talas River, and mispronounced to Taraz by the Arabs, the city reached great heights in the 10th-12th Century as the capital of the Karakhanids, the first to embrace Islam in Kazakhstan. A hundred years later, Taraz was set ablaze by the Mongols. Over the subsequent centuries it was resettled by various people and empires, none of whom knew what treasures lay beneath their feet. That is, till 2011.

Taraz and its surrounds have over 3,000 monuments of which two are especially impressive. One is the lace-like 11th-12th Century Aisha Bibi Mausoleum with its story of love and loyalty. The second is the 8th-12th Century ruins of the incomplete Akyrtas Palace made of red sandstone blocks weighing up to several tons each.

6. Shymkent, the Silk Road caravanserai that grew into Modern Kazakhstan’s third largest metropolis

Though Shymkent has surged ahead in recent years as an industrial and economic hub, it is also indelibly tied up with its Silk Road past. One is never far from a spattering of Sufi tombs, while the [largely restored] Citadel-cum-Museum lies perched atop a hill. The latter a reminder of the role the city played from the 11th Century onward in the form of a bustling caravanserai on the medieval trans-continental trade route. Though captured by Genghis Khan in 1219, followed by Tamerlane and a bevy of foreign rulers, Shymkent kept evolving. Today, it is Kazakhstan’s third largest city.

In addition to the citadel, the city’s historical treasures include the mausoleums of Sufi saint Khoja Ahmed Yasawi’s parents—Ibrahim Ata and Karashash-Ana, and of Abdel-Aziz Bab, an 8th Century standard-bearer during the Arab Conquest of Central Asia. All three stand in Sayram, a 3,000-year-old continuously inhabited settlement on the outskirts of the city.

Travel tips:

• Getting there: I flew in and out of Shymkent with Air Astana.
• Staying there: Making Shymkent my base, I stayed in an apartment at the Tauke Khan Plaza Hotel in the city centre.
• My favourite cafe: Madlen on Tauke Khan Avenue, next to the hotel.
• How many days: I stayed for 5 days/ 4 nights.
• I explored Kazakhstan’s Silk Road cities through private day tours from Shymkent with Islam Kalanov, SilkTrip, WhatsApp No. +7 707 439 0099.

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Thank you for accompanying me on my journey through Kazakhstan. ❤

I hope you found this travel guide useful. In case you missed any of my earlier posts on Kazakhstan, here they are:

• Travel guide: The six untold treasures of Kazakhstan’s Silk Road heritage [this post]
• 36 hours in Almaty
• Astana aka Nur-Sultan, the brand new capital for an ancient heritage
• Kazakhstan’s ‘Golden Man,’ stories told and untold
• Kazakhstan’s natural wonders where lakes, canyons, and a dune meet
• Travel shorts: Kazakhstan’s bronze age gallery with 5,000 petroglyphs
• Secrets of USSR’s Polygon nuclear test site

[Note: This blog post is part of a series from my 14-day solo independent travels across Kazakhstan in August–September, 2024.]