Walks on architectural sights Mangistau.

“I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers” 

Langston Hughes.

Architectural ensembles of Kazakhstan.

The architectural ensemble of the Senek necropolis dates from the late 17th and early 20th centuries, located in the Karakiyansky district of the Mangistau region, 1.8 kilometers southeast of the Senek village, 2.3 kilometers north of the cliff of the Kulanda ledge, 1.1 kilometers from the southern edge of the Tuyesu sands.
Senek reserve is an architectural monument of the XVII - XX centuries, it represents a necropolis consisting of several sepulchral constructions and an old mosque. To reach this place is not so simple, the reserve is located in a distant aul Senek of the Atyrau region.
The necropolis consists of two groups of sepulchral constructions, the first group is dated from the XIX – XX c.c. and includes 3 domical mausoleums, more than 30 saganatams and one more small tombstone (kulpytas and koitas).
Saganatam is a grave construction in the form of fencing with an open top and a small superelevation on the headboard of the grave. Flag stones, with length of 60 - 70 cm, width of 40 - 50 cm and thickness of 7 - 10 cm. were cut and carved for the building of saganatam’s walls.
Saganatam had no concrete, its foundation was reveted. Flag stone walls were established slightly away from the edge of this frame trimming. The slabs raised in two rows at a distance of 60 - 65 cm from one another.
All the monuments of the first group of the necropolis together occupy an area of more than 1,5 hectares. The second group of the sepulchral constructions is located south eastward at a distance of 600 meters, it has the area of a bit over 1 hectare and consists of two domical mausoleums, about 20 saganatams and several small tombstones.
From the architectural viewpoint, the most attractive among the necropolis’s first group is the mausoleum of Nurbergen Kylyshev built in 1900 by the popular architects Dutbai Zhandauletov and Nurniyaz Izbasarov.
The mausoleum’s composition is organized in an accurate combination of quadrangular frame on a developed three-hinged profiled base with a well set up roof of the dome on a cylindrical drum. The mausoleum has absolutely correct laconic forms. 
The main facade is located on the south-eastern side, it is highlighted with a parapet and decorated with a round medallion covered with carvings in the form of the national ornament.  The entrance gate is framed by a portal with a profiled Fascia (a smallcornice) and a four-step flight closed with massive longitudinal stands.
The inner side of the facade and the walls of the mausoleum are decorated with complex designs, it demonstrates great skills of the architects once again. Patterns of the ornament are performed by means of high technology and based onplant motifs (flowers, petals, buds) and zoomorphic forms (tuye-taban, kosmuiz, synarmuiz) and geometricshapes (circles, triangles, diamonds, squares).
he technique of carving along the outline followed bypolychrome coloring was applied in the decoration of the Mausoleum. In the second group of the necropolis’s structures, the mazar of a certain Bekkula Zhantorin is of the greatest interest as an architectural monument.
The mazar was built around 1785 - 1790 years, it is distinguished with its strong squat proportions and well-preserved gravestone constructions which are the indicative of that era.  Except the necropolis consisting of two groups of buildings, the mosque buildingof Senek and a yurt-shaped house located in the center of the village are also included in the Senek architectural reserve.
Both buildings are dated from about the end of XIX and early XXth century, they are made of hewn sandstone limestone and represent the architectural forms and techniques of non urban (aul) construction of that time.
The architectural Senek reserve undoubtedly attracts specialists of history and architecture as well as ordinary tourists striving to know and understand the history of the native shore.
Geographic coordinates of the Senek necropolis: N43 ° 21'21.36 "E53 ° 24'08.11"

Authority:
«Kazakh SSR» the Brief encyclopedia. The editor-in-chief. R.N.Nurgaliev, Alma-Ata, the Editor-in-chief of the Kazakh Soviet encyclopedia, 1991. - volume 4, «Language. The literature. Folklore. Art. Architecture», With. 315. - 31 300 copies. - ISBN 5-89800-023-2. The decision of Ministerial council Kazakh SSR from January, 26th, 1982 38 «About monuments of history and culture Kazakh SSR Republican value». Makbagar Mandikulov. «Monuments of national architecture of the Western Kazakhstan», Alma-Ata, 1987. http://culturemap.kz

Photos  by
 Alexander Petrov.