Southern Kazakhstan Tourism Destinations

Kazakhstan is the land of ancient civilizations. Since times immemorial its inhabitants have been creating outstanding and original culture. Today the admin istrative, cultural and industrial center of the region is Shymkent, the third largest city in Kazakhstan (420,000 people). South Kazakhstan Region is famous mostly for its historical memorials - burial mounds, sites of ancient settlements, for tresses, mausoleums and ancient towns.

Unique is the architecture and history of the ancient town of Turkestan (16-18th centuries), the political, trade and cultural center of the Kazakh khanate. The elegance and beauty of the Esim-khan mausoleums is striking, as is the complex of a Sufi advocate - Hodja Ahmed Yassaui (a town until the 16th c.) and sultan's Ondan.

TurkestanThe ancient town of Ispijab, now Sairam, located to the east of Shymkent, is famous for its mausoleums of Ibragim- Ata (17-20th centuries) and Karashash-Ana (17th c.) The Otrar National Archeological Museum-Preserve is locat ed here. It includes 12 medieval sites of ancient settlements.

Unique are the archeological excavations of ancient towns of Sygnak, Otrar and neighboring memorials, such as Kuiryuk- tobe, Altyn-tobe, Kok-mardan, the Baba-Ata Mosque-Mausole um, the mausoleum of Baba-Tukti Shashaty Aziz (19-20th centuries), the Karabura Mausoleum (18-19th centuries), the mauso leums of Baidibek-ata and Domalak-ana, and the historical and cultural preserve Ordabasy.

Where semi-desert and the Kyzylkum desert meet, on the Kyzylkum river, the town of Arys is located. According to the latest archeological data, this area contains the classical sample objects of agricultural and cattle-breeding cultures of South Kazakhstan - the ancient settlement of Zhuantobe (the Arys river basin) and the Borizhar burial ground.