Over a millenia of history lies in the hot, baked earth around Turkestan, home to Kazakhstan’s most famous monument, a gem of Timurid accomplishment. Empires and conquerors have come and gone, Persians, Seljuks, Sogdians, Mongols, and the population is evenly mixed between Uzbek and Kazak.
A further 40km through the dry and dusty steppe sits Sauran, where vast unattended ruins show the scale of the city which prospered under the great Amir Timur from the 1370s.
A shepherd surveys the landscape from the walls of Sauran, where soldiers and conquerors once controlled the silk road trade.
Shards of pottery were all over the ground as we walked from the highway to the walled city of Sauran.
Sauran. Our only company for the day were a pair of shepherds, and an archeologist, who drove us to his village and treated us to chal, or shubat, fermented camel milk.
Tiles on the mausoleum of Kozha Akhmed Yasaui, a Turkic poet and sufi, who lived 900 years ago.
The masoleum was never completed, and yet is one of the best preserved Timurid sites on the silk roads.
The masoleum viewed in the afternoon light.
The ornate tiles, domes and calligraphy are typical of Timurid architecture.
The grand bazaars of the silk roads survive, if not thrive.
A typical Kazak meal. Bread, salad, lamb soup known as shurpa, and grilled meat.
A bread seller flashes a gold-tooth smile in the bazaar.