Travel to Turkestan

Turkestan’s recorded history begins in the 5th–6th centuries AD, when two settlements—Shavgar and Yasi—grew at the intersection of caravan routes connecting Bukhara, Samarkand, and Khiva with the Kazakh steppe. By the 12th century, the city—then known as Yasi—had become a major center of Islamic learning and trade, its bazaars handling hundreds of camel loads daily. Timur’s commission of the Yasawi Mausoleum in 1389 confirmed its status as one of the holiest cities in the Turkic world.

In the 16th century, Yasi was renamed Turkestan and became the capital of the Kazakh Khanate—the political, spiritual, and ceremonial heart of the emerging Kazakh nation. Kazakh khans were crowned and buried here for two centuries. The city declined as Russian expansion pushed the administrative center westward and maritime trade routes replaced overland Silk Road commerce. Incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1864, Turkestan eventually became part of Soviet Kazakhstan, which maintained the mausoleum as an architectural monument while restricting its function as a pilgrimage site. Following independence, it was inscribed as Kazakhstan’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003.