Sauran
Coordinates: 43 ° 30 ′ 55 " N , 67 ° 46 ′ 7" E
Sauran ( Kazakh Сауран , also Sawran ) is an archaeological site on the Silk Road in southern Kazakhstan . In its heyday, the city was the largest in today's territory of Kazakhstan and a major hub for caravan routes.
location
Sauran is located in the Turkistan region , a good 40 km northwest of the regional capital, Turkistan , a few hundred meters east of the border with the Kyzylorda region . In the north, the Trans-Aral Railway and the M32 pass the excavation site. About 10 km south of the site is the current river bed of the Syr Darya . The village of the same name, Sauran, and the station of the same name on the Trans-Aral Railway are located about 15 km to the southeast.
description
Sauran is considered to be the best preserved medieval ruined city in Kazakhstan. Its central part is the citadel (Qala) surrounded by a wall over two kilometers long and measuring around 800 × 900 m. Outside the Qala, the rest of the city covers an area of about four square kilometers. Inside the walls are the ruins of buildings from the 13th to 18th centuries, including residential, commercial and public buildings, some of which are architecturally comparable to those of Samarkand , Khiva and Bukhara . From the city gate in the north, a main street up to ten meters wide leads into the Qala to a central square about 100 × 50 m in size, surrounded by a mosque, and from there to the second city gate in the southeast. To the east of the Qala is the Saurans necropolis with a mosque. Numerous Karez irrigation canals have been found around Sauran .
history
.jpg)
According to Erbulat Smagulow's work, the history of Sauran is closely related to that of Qaratöbe, a few kilometers south-east. He dates the settlement layer of Qaratöbe to the pre-Mongolian period (4th to 13th century AD) and that of Sauran to the 14th to 18th centuries. Smagulow postulated a chronological and territorial continuity between the two sites.
Sauran was first mentioned in writing in connection with the conquests of the Arabs in the Syr Darya region in the first half of the 8th century. As a result, the city was mentioned by various medieval authors in connection with certain political events. The analysis of this information allows, according to Smagulow, to characterize Sauran as the most important cultural, economic and political center of medieval Kazakhstan. In the 14th century, Sauran was the capital of the White Horde . Sauran finally sank into insignificance in favor of Turquoise by the 18th century.
Web links
- Erbulat A. Smagulov: Sauran Medieval Archaeological Complex in South Kazakhstan , on transoxiania.org
- Erbulat A. Smagulov: Застройка центральной площади города Сауран XIV – XVI вв. , on archaeologie.pro (from Powolschskaja archeologija )
- R. Sala, JM Deom, and D. Clarke: The karez of the Sauran region of Central Asia , on researchgate.net
- Sauran as the part of cultural heritage RK , on e-history.kz
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Erbulat A. Smagulov: Sauran Medieval Archaeological Complex in South Kazakhstan , on transoxiania.org
- ↑ Erbulat A. Smagulov: Застройка центральной площади города Сауран XIV – XVI вв. , on archaeologie.pro (from Powolschskaja archeologija ), p. 93