Excursion to Mashad mausoleums in Dekhistan.

“...it seemed a part of her life, to step from the ancient to the modern, back and forth. She felt rather sorry for those who knew only one and not the other. It was better, she thought, to be able to select from the whole menu of human achievements than to be bound within one narrow range” 

Orson Scott Card.

Historical monuments Turkmenistan.

The mausoleums on the Mashad necropolis are located at an altitude of 152 meters above sea level, 172 meters (mausoleum number 2) south of the Shir Kabir mausoleum, 300 meters from mausoleum 1 to mausoleum 3 and 4 in the northern part of the Messerian plain, in the southern part of the Choganly plain, in the northwestern part of the Khurmen sands, 22.3 kilometers to the north and slightly west (mausoleum No. 2) from the village of Madau, 8.9 kilometers to the north and slightly east (mausoleum No. 2) from the Dekhistan settlement in Etrek of the etrap of the Balkan velayat.
At the cemetery site of Mashad, only a few mausoleums (XI - XII centuries) have survived, the ruins of which were examined in 1947 by Turkmen scientists. Then 7 buildings were recorded. A re-examination of their condition in 1970 showed that the process of destruction continues and now only 4 mausoleums remain.
They were laid out of small-sized square fired bricks (with a side from 19 to 24 cm and a thickness of 4 - 6 cm) and were completed with domes. The four existing mausoleums are octahedra with stepped niches in the walls of two types: round with gullast buttresses and round buttresses with sharp edges.
On some mazars, the remains of alabaster plaster have been preserved inside and out. There are large gaps inside the structures, in some places significant parts of the walls have been lost.
G.A. Pugachenkova dates the mausoleums to the pre-Mongol times (XI - XII centuries) - the time of the highest prosperity of Mashad and Mestoriana.
Geographic coordinates of the mausoleum No. 1 at the Mashad necropolis: N38 ° 19'32.75 "E54 ° 39'07.52"
Geographic coordinates of the mausoleum No. 2 on the Mashad necropolis: N38 ° 19'35.69 "E54 ° 39'03.54"
Geographic coordinates of the mausoleum No. 3 on the Mashad necropolis: N38 ° 19'38.75 "E54 ° 38'57.48"
Geographic coordinates of the mausoleum No. 4 on the Mashad necropolis: N38 ° 19'39.51 "E54 ° 38'58.60"

Authority:
On materials of information department of the State committee of Turkmenistan on tourism and sport. "Religious and spiritual monuments to Central Asia". Author M. Hashimov. Saga publishing house, 2001.