Turkestan was once a very important Silk Road City. Timur ordered the construction of the mausoleum here in 1389, in honour of poet Ahmed Yasawi. Locals can make three visits here in lieu of a pilgrimage to Mecca. Not far away is the ruined city of Sauran, located in the vast Steppe. In short, Turkestan has a lot going for it.
And then, in 2018, they built the Karavansary Complex, which, in my opinion, vastly increased Turkestan’s pull factor.
The mausoleum
I absolutely understand the urge to restore once-grand buildings that have fallen into disrepair. But in many instances restorations have been so thorough that it’s not possible to see what’s original and what is new. The mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, however, has been left relatively untouched over the centuries. The bricks and tiles you see today are the same bricks and tiles that were made in nearby Sauran or decorated by artisans from various Persian cities.
For all the splendour of the building’s exterior there isn’t much to see inside. So, let’s focus on those gorgeous blue domes, one of which has aesthetically-pleasing tubular lines billowing from top to bottom and decorated in such a way that reminds me of the finest silk rugs. The size of the mausoleum is also impressive: an immense 38.7 metres high. With few tourists around it was easy to just sit and gaze in awe.
The lost city
An hour north-west from the centre of Turkestan the ruins of Sauran rise from the interminable Steppe. This, too, was once an important city. Founded in the 6th century CE its leaders cleverly submitted to whichever marauder passed through, thus being spared by various khans and conquerors. They were also smart enough to construct channels from the nearby Syr Darya river, putting them underground so that the water wouldn’t evaporate in the hot Kazakh sun.
Just as the river began to meander further away, so, too, did the Silk Road, bringing an end to Sauran in 1515. Visitors (of whom we were the only ones) can walk around the decrepit walls, which look as though they’re slowly melting back into the ground. It’s peaceful and atmospheric place. Oh yes, there are turtles too.
The resort
730 miles from the nearest sea (Caspian – the Aral Sea doesn’t count any more), in a place that receives just 37.9cm of rain annually, luxury hotel company Rixos decided to build a massive fake waterway. It’ll take you several minutes to walk from lake beside the giant golden dome – inside of which is a “flying theatre” showcasing Kazakh culture – along the long canal to an even larger lake surrounded by the domed and dun-coloured buildings of a luxury family hotel. This, then, is the magnificently tacky Karavansary.
Sadly we didn’t stray far from our hotel (Hampton Inn) for dinner and only had two nights to sample the cuisine. On both nights we made the mistake of going to Karavansary, with only the meagre portion of horsemeat plov served by Wow Plov proving barely adequate. No matter, though, for the real highlight of this place is the free show performed every night on the main lake. Nine characters from an ancient Kazakh story act out scenes on electrically-powered boats against a fake crenelated castle background. In the middle of the lake sky-high water jets gush and flames erupt in vague syncopation with the story.
The conclusion
It was absolutely worth going out of our way to visit Turkestan. The city and its nearby attractions are worth two days of your time, any more than that and you’ll run out of things to do. From Turkestan you could push north to see Baikonur (although that’s not so easy nowadays), or do as we did and head south east to Taraz and Kyrgyzstan.
It’s not currently possible to go inside the main section of the mausoleum due to (sensitive) restoration work and the choice of hotels and restaurants isn’t particularly great. There are also, apparently, excavations of Old Turkestan – once the centre of the ancient caravan trade – but for some reason it’s not possible to get in and see them.
The Karavansaray show happens every night at 8pm. Perhaps I was all domed-out after Uzbekistan and so didn’t fully appreciate the mausoleum but, embarrassingly, the show and the fake waterway it was performed on turned out to be my highlight.
Turkestan transport and hotels
🚌
Shared taxis depart for Turkestan from Shymkent when full. To get to Shymkent from the Uzbekistan border requires another shared taxi. It’s easily possible to get from Tashkent to Turkestan in a day.
🚆
There’s a nightly sleeper train which departs Turkestan for Almaty at 00:27. It’s pretty comfortable. tickets can be purchased online using the link to the right.
Turkish Airlines and Wizz Air both fly to Turkestan from Istanbul/Abu Dhabi.
A Plan To Go 