Travels across Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

"World history is world judgment"

F. Schiller.

Unusual travels in Kazakhstan.

The Sarly-tam settlement is located in the northern part of the Kyzylkum desert in the Syrdarya district of the Kyzylorda region, 29.3 kilometers southeast of the Zhanadarya village and 72.3 kilometers southeast of the Akkyr village, 15.5 kilometers to the south- to the east is the Koksengir hillock, 171.2 meters above sea level.
The complex of monuments of the Sarly-tam tract includes a fortress, a settlement arriving to it and a mazar standing on a high sandy hill near the fortress. The Sarly-tam kala settlement has an irregular rounded shape in plan, with a diameter of about 250 meters.
In the northern part of it there is a square citadel, facing the entrance to the south, the city wall surrounds it on three sides, adjoining at two ends to the northern wall of the citadel. The area of ​​the citadel is 70 x 70 meters, its walls are fortified with towers, two of them frame the entrance, four are located in the corners and, in addition, one tower is in the middle of each of the other three walls.
The tower in the north wall of the citadel opposite the gate stands out for its size - its height is 5 meters. In the citadel, the layout of three buildings can be traced. The city wall looks like a large rampart, preserved to an average height of up to three meters, there are 26 towers in it, in the southwestern part of the wall there was a gate - the remains of a pre-gate structure have been preserved.
Inside the settlement, as well as in the citadel, one can trace the remains of buildings with dense placers of ceramics. From the north, the fortress is directly adjacent to the suburb, also surrounded by a wall with seven towers.
Along the contours, the suburb approaches a semicircle. Its walls do not adjoin the northern wall of the city, forming here wide passages with traces of gate structures. Outside the walls of the settlement, to the west of it, there is a settlement, the area of ​​which is about 300 x 400 meters.
Numerous hillocks are covered with ceramics. In addition to the remains of houses, there are traces of different handicraft industries: pottery kilns, brick kilns; a lot of slags, debris. On the outskirts of the settlement, there are ruins of several small mazars.
On the eastern side of the settlement, there are clearly visible areas of field with irrigation furrows. The Sarly-tam settlement and the adjoining settlement are dated according to the finds of ceramics of the XIth-XIIth centuries.
The most common pots with a neck, decorated with a stuck-on roller with pinches. Handicraft pottery dates back mainly to the XI - XII century. Later ceramics, for example, gray jugs with a high rounded cross-section handle, dating from the XIIth - XIIIth centuries in Khorezm, apparently belong here to an earlier time.
It is very likely that this form of products came to Khorezm from the northeastern steppes and was borrowed by local artisans, like some other forms of material culture and art, from neighboring steppe tribes. There are few glazed ceramics found on Syrly, and they date back to the same period.
Geographic coordinates of Sarylatam ancient settlement: N44 ° 25'59.95 "E64 ° 49'08.09"

Authority:
A.A. Tazhekeyev, R.T. Darmenov. "Bulletin of KazNU".  2012. Almaty
https://articlekz.com/article/7260

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.