Zholaskan Underground Mosque in Mangyshlak.

"A monument is a great connecting thread between the past and the future, the graves of nomads, these are cities built near their native nomad camps and books written for descendants in the language of specific things."

Writer Abish Kekilbayev.

Trip to underground mosque Zholaskan in Mangistau.

Underground mosque Zholaskan is located at an altitude of 74 meters above sea level, is located in southern part of cemetery of same name, 8.8 kilometers west of Aktau - Fort Shevchenko highway, 5.2 kilometers northeast of Cape Segendy, 25.7 kilometers northwest of Aktau airport, in Tupkaragan district of Mangistau region.
The Zholaskan necropolis has about 100 burial structures. The monuments date back to the XVIIIth - XIXth centuries. They are represented by two mausoleums, saganatamas, stone fences. The mosque is cut into a hilly remnant of shell rock and goes 9 meters underground, i.e. this is how the length of the monument is calculated.
The mosque consists of three rooms stretched in a chain, the first is a corridor, an open narrow passage, along which, due to the slope, it descends into a covered round room, this room is the widest and most spacious (3.34 meters), on the western side of it there is a ventilation device, covered above the ground by a semicircular stone with a guide hole.
A narrow opening in the northern part leads to the third room, almost square in plan with rounded corners and slightly widened in the northern part. Unfortunately, there are no written or other sources on this remarkable monument. The monument was examined by the staff of "Mangyshlakrestavratsiya" in 1984.
Geographic coordinates of underground mosque Zholaskan: N44°03'14 E50°55'22

Authority and photos by:
Otynshy Koshbayuly, Murat Kalmenov. "Underground mosques of Mangistau". The history of underground mosques. Almaty, Publishing house "Orkhon". 2009. 160 p.