Informative travel to Shymkent.

“Where the spirit does not lead the artist’s hand, there is no art”

Leonardo da Vinci.

Sights of monuments Turkestan region in Kazakhstan.

The Baba-Ata Palace and Sign Complex, the XVIIth century and the Baba-Ata settlement, are located in southern Kazakhstan on the northern slopes of Karatau on the outskirts of the village of Baba Ata, on the left bank of the river of the same name in the Sozak district of Turkestan region.
The citadel of the city was two-story and had a height of about six meters. The central core of the building was an octagonal hall two stories high, around which two staircases, two corridors were compactly located, and on the second floor there were four square halls.
All the halls were covered with domes, and galleries and corridors with arches. According to researchers, this building was a "temple of fire." The ceremonial and religious rooms of the palaces of that time were often decorated with wall paintings, carvings on alabaster, and carved wood.
For example, on carved clay, ganch is widely represented in the palace complex of Kostobe. The most well-preserved type of decor is art carving on a thick layer of clay plaster. Carving panels in the premises included floral and geometric ornaments.
Wood carving is widely represented in the front hall of the palace on the citadel of Kuyruktobe. When clearing it, a large number of charred parts from wooden floors, including carved ones, were collected. Among the unique finds are the remains of planks from the frieze, which once adorned the walls of the main hall.
Nine fragmented boards were cleared, mothballed and raised. Better than others, a plaque with images of deities on zoomorphic thrones has been preserved. Another plaque from the frieze with the siege of the castle scene is fragmentary, its length is 93 cm, width is 23 cm.
The central part of the plaque is occupied by the composition, where in the arch decorated with four petals on the walls, apparently, of the castle or city, crowned with pyramidal teeth, are depicted two archers. Here, in the foreground, a deity with raised hands is depicted.
Perhaps the scene of the siege of the castle or city should be compared with the then Manichean text, which tells about the fall of the city, besieged by enemies. It refers to the name "Nana-madam." The town of Baba-Ata was destroyed in the XIV century during the fierce, lasting over 60 years of internecine struggle of the heirs of the son of Genghis Khan Jagatay.
After the destruction, the city no longer revived, and for six centuries only a high earthen hill, washed by spring waters and surrounded by dry winds, indicated the place of the city. Archaeologists have made Baba Ata the property of history.
Excavations in Baba-Ata also have the significance that they indicate the presence of settledness in Kazakhstan already in the Middle Ages. Indeed, until recently, Kazakhstan was considered to be a country of constantly nomadic pastoral tribes.
And now on its territory, especially in the southern regions, several hundred dead cities and settlements have been discovered.
Geographic coordinates of the Baba-Ata palace complex: N43 ° 35'27.72 "E69 ° 20'24.04"

Authority:
Karl Baypakov, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Director of the Institute of Archeology named after A. Margulana.