Turkestan - Mausoleum and brass camels

Sunday 24 September 2023

So off we went on a train - ~800 km, 13 hour trip.  Not the fastest but a lovely trundle.

It was a bumpy sleep but we managed a good rest.  Occasionally the train would stop at a station - usually for 10-15 minutes at a time - so people got off and wandered in the sun.  You can see how low (non existent?) the platforms are.

There was no hurry to rise as we didn’t arrive in Turkestan until 1315. We found the dining car and had an instant coffee in style.

We checked in to our hotel and, from our elevated position, saw our goal.

We went down to the Khoja Ahmed Yassaui Mausoleum complex.  It was quite Chinese-i-fied as JC noted.  He said that Chinese developers tend to over-bling an area, removing most traces of messy historical stuff and replacing it with new versions of the past.  So we had metal camels and large terracotta pots dotted around the place.  

Khoja Ahmed Yassaui was an important Muslim teacher so much so that 3 visits to his mausoleum equate to one trip to Mecca.  Hence, Turkestan is a major shrine for pilgrims and set up for local tourists.  There was only one other set of western tourists there which is kind of how I like it.  [To be honest we hardly met any other western tourists].  We bought our tickets for the mausoleum and entered, only to find to our disappointment, that the main hall, with its magnificent dome and cauldron, were out of bounds and full of scaffolding.  Tsk.  But beautiful shadows through the door.

The mosque area, with its mihrab, was worth a look.

The outside was pretty magnificent and was resplendent with enough numbered survey markers to make a surveyor happy.

We wandered up to the Juma Mosque and the underground mosque.  As per the other relics in this area, most had been rebuilt and the underground mosque was no exception.  It was interesting of sorts but then we were invaded by at least a coach load of tourists so that was us off!

We popped into a nearby museum which held no attraction - it had one room of photos of a Russian officer, his importance being 50 years ago, and another room of random articles like spears and cups with displays written in Kazakh alone (we could translate Russian off our phone) so we didn't linger.

We popped over to the tourist shopping centre and marvelled at a birds nest structure, which turned out to be an Imex theatre.  This whole area is very developed and felt a bit like a resort with lots of shiny things and fountains - all the previous buildings seem to have been razed except for the mausoleum.

We stocked up on provisions for our day trip the next day, and I was engaged by the bulk biscuit display.  No, I don't know why I took this either.

Back to the mausoleum for the golden hour of sunset and a bit of camel watching.

The ones on the left are brass.  Those on the right are real, taking tourists around a small square.

We found (not that it was lost) a new mosque too.

We dined on an outdoor terrace.  I turned in whilst JC wandered around taking beautiful night photos.  When you see them you'll realise all mine are holiday snappy snaps, but they make me happy.