Historic Sites in Kazakhstan

The Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi was commissioned by Timur for the tomb of a revered Sufi poet and left unfinished at his death in 1405. The tiled side walls and turquoise ribbed domes are complete, while the giant main portal still has bare brick and scaffold holes, which lets you see how the building was made. Inside, the central hall holds a bronze cauldron cast in 1399. Allow two hours for the mausoleum, the citadel walls and the smaller tombs around it. For the shrine side of the visit, see our Kazakhstan mosques page.

Sauran, about 40 km northwest of Turkistan, is the best preserved medieval city in Kazakhstan: an oval of mud-brick walls still several metres high, with gates and the outline of streets and a mosque inside. It is unfenced, unstaffed and nearly empty, so bring water and come in the morning or late afternoon. A taxi from Turkistan is the easy way.

Otrar was one of the great cities of the Syr Darya valley until the Mongols sacked it in 1220, and Timur died here in 1405 on his way to invade China. Excavations have uncovered the citadel, baths and a mosque on the main mound, and a small museum in the nearby village of Shauildir shows the finds. Arystan Bab’s mausoleum, the pilgrims’ first stop before Turkistan, is a few kilometres away, so the two make an easy half day from Turkistan.

Further down the river near Kyzylorda, Sighnaq was a capital of the White Horde and Jankent an early Oghuz town. Both are ruins on open ground, a long drive on rough roads, and best visited with a local driver who knows the way.

The petroglyphs of Tamgaly are carved into dark rock faces in a small gorge in the Chu-Ili hills, about three to four hours’ drive from Almaty. The thousands of carvings run from the Bronze Age to recent centuries, and the most famous show figures with sun-ray heads, cattle and dancing people. A marked path leads past the main panels, with a small visitor area and an entry fee. Go early in summer; there is no shade.

The Issyk kurgans are grass-covered burial mounds of the Saka, the Iranian-speaking nomads of the steppe, beside the town of Esik, an hour east of Almaty. In 1969 and 1970 archaeologists found a warrior buried in a costume covered with some 4,000 gold pieces, the Golden Man, whose figure stands on top of the independence monument in Almaty. The Esik museum next to the mounds displays a replica and other finds; the original pieces are kept in national museums such as the Central State Museum in Almaty and the National Museum in Astana. The Besshatyr mounds in Altyn-Emel are larger and much more remote.

Taraz is one of the oldest cities in Kazakhstan, mentioned in records of the 6th century, and the Karakhanid rulers of the 11th and 12th centuries left the country’s finest early tombs around it. About 18 km west of town, Aisha Bibi is a small square mausoleum entirely covered in carved terracotta tiles, with the plainer tomb of Babaji Khatun beside it. In town, the Karakhan Mausoleum and the excavated ancient settlement near the central square are a short walk apart. Akyrtas, a puzzling unfinished complex of huge red sandstone blocks about 40 km east of Taraz, is part of the Silk Road World Heritage listing.

Astana’s monuments tell the story of the new capital. Baiterek, the 97 m tower with a golden sphere, marks the year 1997 when the capital moved here, and a lift runs to an observation deck inside the ball. The Otan Qorgaushylar Monument honours the defenders of the fatherland. Just outside the city, the ALZHIR memorial museum stands on the site of a Stalin-era camp for the wives of men declared traitors, and the Karlag museum at Dolinka near Karaganda tells the story of one of the largest gulag systems.

In Almaty, the Park of 28 Panfilov Guardsmen holds the eternal flame and a giant Second World War memorial. Further afield, the Baikonur Cosmodrome near Toretam, where Gagarin’s flight was launched in 1961, can only be visited on an organised tour with a permit booked well ahead, and tour operators in Semey run trips to the former Semipalatinsk nuclear test site near Kurchatov.

Most ruins are open ground with no fixed hours and no fee; managed sites such as Tamgaly, the Yasawi complex and Otrar’s museum charge small fees and keep daytime hours. Public transport rarely reaches the ruins, so hire a taxi or driver from the nearest city: Turkistan for Sauran and Otrar, Almaty for Tamgaly and Issyk, Taraz for Aisha Bibi. Spring and autumn are best in the south, where summer heat is fierce and there is little shade at the sites. Do not climb on walls or pick up pottery shards. For parks on the same routes, see our Kazakhstan national parks page, and for transport and money, the first-timer’s guide.