The Great Silk Road    Kazakhstan part of Silk Road. The Great Silk Road in Kazakhstan

Yet the Silk Road to become not only the trade route but also it was there that two different civilizations came onto contact, those of the East and the West with their specific cultural traditions, religious beliefs, scientific and technical achievements. Central Asia situated between China and India in the east, bordering on the European world in the west, between the Volga and Siberia in the north, between Persia and Arabia in the south for almost two thousand years stood on the crossing of great roads, world's civilizations and cultures.

A lot has been lost by history. The dust of ages has covered ancient towns, but careful hands of archeologists and restorers have succeeded in finding and restoring for us rare treasures of the old culture of Semirechye and Central Asia.

Branches and roads of the Silk Route didn't remain unaltered in the course of time - they changed depending upon different reasons: some of them became significant and flourishing, others ceased to exist, causing the decay of towns and settlements on their way.

In the sixth-seventh centuries A.D. the route passing through China to the west via Semirechie and southern Kazakhstan. The flourishing period of the Silk Road passing through Central Asia and Kazakhstan fell on the 8-12^th. centuries.

The huge territory remembers slow steppes of camel caravans, for thousand years walking on wide routs of the Great Silk Road.

This part of the road represents a unique complex of history monuments, archeology, architecture, town planning and monumental art. Cities Otrar, Taraz, Sairam (Ispidzhab), Turkestan (Yassy), Syab, Balasagyn and others were not only shopping centers, but also centers of science and culture.

Taraz.    In old days the town was called a town of merchants. The narrow streets, like streams, ran to the center - the many-voiced bazaar. The bazaar of Taraz was the focus of life. It was thanks to the bazaar that the town came into being with a citadel, mosques, caravanserais, pise-walled cottages, walled courtyards and handicraftsmen's workshops. It seemed that people from all over the world were coming to the bazaar place in order to sell, buy or exchange something. One could sell and buy practically anything wanted to. The ancients were right to say: "The Taraz bazaar is the mirror of the world".

In the course of many centuries it was a center of non-ferrous metallurgy. Copper articles of Taraz workshops such as jugs, cosmetic boxes, lampions, decorations for arms, clothes and harness traveled all over the world. An example of casting art is the ritual boiler (Kazakh) in the mausoleum of Ahmet Yasavi in Turkestan; it is second to none by its dimensions. Its diameter is 2.2 m, the weight - 2 tons.

In 1896 at the All-Russia exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod Kazakh braselet-blesiki made of silver called forth a real sensation, they were awarded gold medals.

Just as two thousand years ago the present-day greens bazaar is on the very place. When you walk along its rows now you feel the dust of millenniums under your feet.

Otrar.    "Traveler! Here are the ruins of the fortress-town that stemmed for half a year the advance of hordes to Central Asia and Transcaucasia, Great Russ and east-European countries, that showed resistance to foreign invaders in the following centuries", runs the inscription on the cast-iron plate set up at the entrance to the territory of the Otrar archeological reserve-museum. The Otrar oasis covered over 150 small towns, fortresses, castles and fortified settlements connected with one another by a chain of caravanserais of the Great Silk Road. In the time of it's flourishing the population of Otrar numbered about a quarter of a million.

The first town-type settlement on the Otrar place is dated the 2^nd century B.C. Its founders were the Kangyus - descendants of the Saks.

Otrar is the birthplace of the great scientist and philosopher of the Middle Ages Abu Nasra ibn Mohammed who came into history under the name of Al Farabi. The thinker lived between 870 and 950. Thanks to his philosophical thinking and encyclopedic knowledge he was called the Second teacher of mankind after Aristotle when he was still alive. His treatise on classification of sciences opened a way to learning for centuries ahead. It is not without reason that all the great scientists after him such as Avicenna, Al-Biruni, ash-Shirazee, Makhmud Kashgari, Yusuf Ballasafuni, Ulugbek, ibn al-Arabi considered themselves to be his disciples.

Turkestan.    Another ancient town on the Great Silk Road was Turkestan, which is 1500 years old. The town came into being in 490 A.D. The town of Yasa had its flourishing time in the VII^th century. At that time it was motley, crowded with its abundant bazaars and endless caravans. Fame of the town spread all over the Moslems world. To a certain extent, it was due to the name of Hodja Ahmed ibn Ibragim al Yasavi, a dervish, an advocate of Sufism, and the founder of an ascetic brotherhood Yasavia who wrote verses in the language of ordinary people. His poems became very popular; his ardent sermons attracted a big number of pilgrims. It was at that time that Yasa was called "a second Mecca".

Sufi is a religious teaching that combined orthodox Islam and popular beliefs. By his private life and with the help of simple easily understood language Hodja Ahmed Yasavi called upon people to be kind, meek, and obedient and not to be greedy. Ahmed Yasavi's fame did not dwindle after his death. Thousands of pilgrims thronged to his grave. The first mausoleum built over the sheikh's grave was very modest and became dilapidated as time passed. A new mausoleum was erected 233 years after his death by Temur's order. At present Ahmed Yasavi's mausoleum has been restored to its original appearance. The town is becoming a major center of world tourism.

In the time of caravan trade there were another very important ancient town - Ispidzhab or Sairam. In the historical chronicles of the 9-10^th centuries Ispidzhab was called a first class military fortress. The Arabs named this town one of the best towns of the East for its independence and dignity, attacking the name of White town to it.

A lot of disasters fell upon Ispidzhab's lot after the devastating wars against Khoresm shash Mohammed and Kara-Chinese. There is nothing left from fine gardens and fortifications but ruined walls, spoiled or broken trees. In the 15^th century the town was restored to life under the name of Sairam and once more it was surrounded by strong fortified walls and trenches.

After the destruction in 1684 Sairam was not able to recover its former name. Now there are very few remains of the past fame of White town such as ruins walls, bastions, the minaret of the destroyed Bazalakata (the 12^th century) mosque with a spiral staircase and a half-destroyed entrance to the basement leading no one knows where.

Some cult structures remind you of past of Sairam, such as two monuments connected with the name of Hodja Ahmjet Yasavi which were built after the Dzungar destruction. His parents were buried in Ispidzhab. After the erection of the tomb to Hodja Ahmet Yasavi in Sairam monuments were erected to his parents - Ibraghim ata and Karachach ana.

Suyab and Balasagun. Suyab was the first capital of the west Turkic Kaganat that was formed in 581 and a busy trade center. Every year merchants from different countries came to a big fair where they sold and bought goods and taken about their commercial matters.

Suab was the ancient capital of the Semirechye Turks, the forefathers of the Kazakh ethnos and Balasagun was the first town where the Turks touched the Koran. Towns were reordered many times but it was rather difficult to determine their exact geopolitical positions. For about two thousand years caravans moved along the Great Silk Road. Nothing could stop their measured steps. The world was shaken by bloody wars and devastating epidemics. There came into life peoples and states and then they disappeared. Even the Amu Darya changed its course and sources; the Aral Sea changed its outline and only three Silk Road remained unchanged.

Joint project of OrexCA.com and KTA & KAGIR. Information is taken from CD "All about tourism in Kazakhstan"