Turkestan

Turkestan is a city in the South Kazakhstan region, the city of the regional administration.
The first city settlement (Shavgar) arose in this place in about 500 A.D. Later, it was Yassy (Yasy), which was part of the Tamerlane State, the capital of the Kazakh Khanate until the 18th century.
Turkestan has a railway station on the Orenburg- Tashkent route. Light and food industries, producing of construction materials were highly developed. There is a large market and the biggest university of Central Asia – International Kazakh – Turkish University after Khodja Akhmet Yassaviy (22,000 students).
Today’s Turkestan (from 1968 it is the city of the South Kazakhstan regional submission) of 24 000 square kilometers, and population of 120 000 becomes large industrial, educational and cultural center, the center of local and international tourism. 13 industrial objects successfully work in the city, among which the largest are: Yasy ginnery joint-stock company KPO, machine-building factory KUAT, joint-stock company Turkestan agro-remmash, knitted goods factory, factory of antibiotic industry, Kazakh and England joint company “PARABE” on bandaging material producing. In 1994, Turkestan University with 13 faculties was opened here.
Khodja Akhmet Yassaviy mausoleum is a huge longitudinal and axial portal and domical construction. It has the size of 46,5 x 65,5 meters. The thickness of the inner walls is 1,8-2 meters; the central part is 3 meters.
The building has a huge portal and many domes. More than 35 premises with different assignments are joined around its central hall – kazanlyk.
Kazandyk is covered with the biggest brick dome in Kazakhstan, which remains in Central Asia. The diameter of the dome is 18,2 meters.
For the Turks, the kazan was the symbol of unity and hospitality. That is why its size and inner decoration were of special importance. The Turkestan kazan has no equal. Its diameter is 2,45 meters, its weight is two tons, and it is produced from an alloy of seven metals.
The walls of the mausoleum are of burnt bricks. The technological cleanliness of the production was brought to perfection. The revetment of the north portal is amazing; the door of the burial vault is fretted and has a thin bone construction.
In terms of size, the Khodja Akhmet Yassaviy mausoleum is equal to the Bibi-Khanum mosque in Samarkand (Uzbekistan).

Places of interest:
Khanaka (mausoleum) of the end of the XV century on the tomb of Khodja Akhmet Yassaviy – the famous Sufi
tombs of the famous Kazakh khans Esimkhan, Ablay khan, Abulkhair khan and others.
Burial ground  of Kazybek bi, one of the creators of the first Kazakh code of laws, “Jety Jargy”
Railway station (1905) – architectural monument.
In 2000, the city celebrated 1500 year anniversary.  In accordance with the event plan 1271,3 million tenge, or more than 10 million US dollars, were used for the capital construction.