8 hours of train for 1 building

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Geo: 43.2792, 68.2498

The 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. The original, built in the 12th century was quite modest so Tamburlaine the Great decided something a bit grander was called for and the result is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most stunning man-made thing in Kazahstan.
It was the centre of a complex of mausoleums and other religious buildings but they all, except for this one, fell into rack and ruin and the surroinding site is an archaeological dig with some decidely shady reconstruction work going on - see the surrounding wall photo!
What is more remarksble is that the train journey is across the featureless steppe, no landmarks, precious few trees, just scrubby bushes and herds of goats. Now and then towns of varying size but a shared ugliness and there - in the middle of Turkistan, this wonderful creation. Let the photos speak for themselves. No photos of the steppe - the train windows are too dirty for thst and none of them open, and none of trains and stations - too sensitive for that. The attendant on the first train was a bit obliging, he alsp spoke a bit of English. You get the feeling they don;t see many tourists here.

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Photos

The great entrance to the mausoleum
Unfinished - it never got its tile decoration

Comments

[jane mounty]

wow incredibly beautiful and no-one knows!well done for going all that way

[Tim Mason]

Judging by the first two entries this looks as though it's going to be a really great trip - West Norwood feels a long way away - not many travellers from Tashkent seen studying the mausoleums in the cemetery here

[Seb Day]

What do you mean by the trains and stations being too sensitive? As in you might get arrested for taking a photo of them?