All the world loves a rose garden

8 hours of train for 1 building

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September 8th 2014
Geo: 43.2792, 68.2498The trains take 4 hours to cover the 165km between Shymkent and Turkestan, so you can imagine they aren't Intercity 125, let alone HS1.So departing Shymkent at 7.05 am and returning at 21.11 gave me about 5 hours to explore the delights of Turkestan, the delightful bit being one building.Its the mausoleum of the first great Turkic Muslim holyman, Kozha Akhmed Yasaui. T ... read more

Asia » Kazakhstan

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Native Kazakhs, a mix of Turkic and Mongol nomadic tribes who migrated into the region in the 13th century, were rarely united as a single nation. The area was conquered by Russia in the 18th century and Kazakhstan became a Soviet Republic in 1936. D... ... read more