Tours historical monuments of Ulytau.

“It was up this causeway that the Tajik ancestors, the Sogdians, had fled from Arab invaders in the eighth century. For more than fifteen hundred years they had lived along the Zerafshan in a loose-linked galaxy of oasis princedoms. Rut Turkic and Arab incursions at last confined them to the great cities, where their Tajik descendants survive, or drove them deep into the mountains, and the valley which we followed still seemed to echo their desperate migration”

The Lost Heart of Asia, Colin Thubron.

Visit mausoleums of Ulytau.

The archaeological complex Baskamyr of republican significance is located in the Taldysai tract in the north-west of the Keregetas mountains, 216 meters from the left (eastern) bank of the Ulken-Zhezdy river, 288 meters from the Zhezdy-Ulytau highway, 16.2 kilometers to the north and slightly west of the village of Zhezdy, 49.5 kilometers south and slightly east of the village of Ulytau and 68.6 kilometers north-west of the city of Zhezkazgan in the Ulytau district of the Karaganda region.
The settlement of Baskamyr is the remains of a medieval castle surrounded by three powerful walls with a citadel and towers. Baskamyr also includes 2 crypts, a cemetery of the same name, an observation stone tower 3.5 meters high, a canal system, begins at the Sarybulak spring, a 20-meter-deep mine at a distance of 1.3 km, and a separate brick building with stone floor.
The form of the fortification is square. The length of the walls is about 80 meters. In the center is the citadel (26 x 23 m). Outside, the city and the citadel are surrounded by moats and clay ramparts. The width of the outer shaft is 5 - 7 meters, the height is 1.4 meters.
In the inner northern corner there is a pit where drinking water entering the canal was stored. Excavations were carried out on a city square of 310 square meters. 7 rooms with a clay floor adjacent to the inner walls of the citadel, a kiln of fired brick and open hearths with a diameter of 0.5 - 0.9 meters and a depth of 0.3 meters were cleared. In the corner of the citadel preserved fragments of the tower with a height of 2.3 meters.
Inside, in addition to fragments of pottery, a lot of wood and metal products (iron, copper, bronze) were found. Researchers attribute Baskamyr to the VIII - XI centuries. Baskamyr was first examined by the Central Kazakhstan Archaeological Expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR (A.Kh. Margulan) in 1948, 1950, 1952, later - S.Zholdasbaev, Zh. Smailov.
The ancient settlement is associated with the construction activities of the Kipchaks. The settlement is identified with the medieval city of the Oguz tribe of the Handagi - Khiam (VIII - XI centuries). It is known according to Al-Idrisi.
A authority talking about the Oguz towns of Hyam and Jadjan says: "The towns are both small, highly fortified." On April 13, 1994, the Baskamyr Museum was established in the tract Taldyysay of the Ulytau district of the Karaganda region.
Geographic coordinates of the Baskamyr ancient settlement: N48 ° 12'34.74 "E67 ° 01'15.82"

Authority:
"Archaeological map of Kazakhstan." Alma-Ata, 1960. No. 937, table III, 16.21. Akishev K.A. "Antiquities of Northern Kazakhstan." “Proceedings of the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography” T.7. Archeology. Alma-Ata, 1959. p. 9, fig. 4-5, tab. I. Margulan A.Kh. "The remains of settled settlements in Central Kazakhstan." "Medieval hillforts and settlements." Zhezkazgan, 1996.111 s. www. tengrifund.ru