Happy Navruz!
С праздником Навруз!
The ninth object in the Heritage of Karakalpakstan series of publications on IICAS social networks
Ayaz-kala 1 (Uzbek Аязқалъа 1) - dated 4th-3rd centuries BCE, 3rd-4th centuries AD; and Ayaz-kala 2 (Uzbek Аязқалъа 2) - dated 7th-8th centuries AD.
• Ayaz-kala-1 (Large Fortress or Fortress in the Wind) is a rectangle 182 x 152 m in size, the sides oriented to the points of the compass. The fortress is surrounded by double walls 10 m high and up to 2.5 m thick. The inner wall has smaller dimensions and has been preserved much worse than the outer one. Semicircular towers were built every 11-12 meters along the perimeter of the outer wall, which had internal rooms for guards and weapons storage and served for the stability of the wall structure. A two-meter arched corridor ran along the inner and outer walls for the movement and rest of the soldiers.
Currently, towers, two-tiered galleries and loopholes arranged at equal distances from each other can be clearly seen in the walls. The entrance to the fortress, located in the southern wall, is protected by a rectangular gatehouse with a passage in the eastern wall, which is also reinforced by two rectangular towers. The courtyard of the site is completely empty, and only in some places there could be small buildings near the walls.
On the northern side of the entrance to the gatehouse, an inscription was found in Aramaic script in the ancient Khorezmian language, consisting of three characters in one line and one sign above it, which is considered a "tamga" — the sign of the master, the supervisor of the construction.
• Ayaz-kala 2. The monument was built on the top of a natural conical hill rising by about 30 m above the level of adjacent takyrs and showing a complex-configuration layout. Its northern and southern walls are parallel. The eastern part is semi-oval in shape. The western part is rounded in such a way that the north-western corner protrudes slightly.
The main part of the archaeologica
The eighth site in the Heritage of Karakalpakstan collection of IICAS publications in the social media, – Toprak-kala, (Uzb. Toprak kal’a), dated to the 1st-5th centuries CE; 6th century CE.
The entire archaeological complex of Toprak-kala included several palaces and a shahristan – a residential area for the housepersons and attendants of two royal temples or palaces. But the residential buildings occupied only a minor part of the shahristan.
The archaeological site covers an area of 500×350 m. Rectangular in plan, it is surrounded by a wide moat and fortress walls 8–9 meters high, equipped with numerous quadrangular towers with rounded corners. The entrance to the settlement was designed as a complex structure in front of the gate, from which a central street, about 9 m wide, ran through the entire shahristan to the citadel.
The High Palace. The main body of the palace, having the shape of a truncated pyramid, was built of adobe bricks, its facades decorated with a system of vertical ledges and recesses. Over 150 halls and rooms of the sacred palace were discovered, profusely decorated with murals and sculptures. The true height of the palace was calculated to have reached a whopping 40 meters. The central volume of the palace combined a two-level and a three-level sections. The palace housed dozens of chambers. The floor area of this monumental edifice was 120 hectares.
The most important shrine is the Dancing Masks hall, the Anahita Temple, intended for mystery performances. Partially preserved on its walls are images of men and women dancing in pairs. This is a typical fire temple: an altar in the center and four columns surrounding it – the chortag. An altar podium was discovered in the center of the hall.
The Kings’ Hall is a dynastic shrine where a fire was burning on an altar in front of 23 large images of Chorasmian kings (unlike some others, these sculptures were modeled in full).
The Hall of Victories – On the walls of this hall are bas-r
The seventh site in the series of publications in social networks of IICAS "Heritage of Karakalpakstan"
Jampyk-kala, (uzb. Жампық қалъа). Dating: the foundation of the settlement dates back to the 4th-3rd centuries BC; 4th, 9th-11th, 13th-14th centuries AC
The settlement has a complex configuration, not caused by the terrain. The maximum length is 420 m, the width is 288 m. The northern wall is straight, with two bends. The western part of the monument was destroyed by the floods of the Amu Darya. The walls reach a height of nine meters and are built of pakhs blocks. The thickness of the walls at the base is 5.6-5.8 m, at the top 3.4-3.6 m. The wall surfaces have an inclination to the base: on the outer side - 79°, on the inner side - 87-88°.
On the top of the walls there was an open shooting gallery 2.8-3.0 m wide, protected from the outside by a parapet up to 0.6 m wide. The ascent to the shooting gallery was carried out by stairs made directly on the inner surface of the walls due to their expansion. 6 towers of a truncated-conical shape have been preserved, spaced from each other by 70 or more meters. A parapet runs along the edge of the towers. Only in the tower on the eastern wall there is a tower room inside, the rest of the towers are solid.
There were probably two entrances. One of them was located in the northern wall and served as an exit to the cemetery. It was fenced off from the side of the Amu Darya by a stone dam about 84 m long. The second gate could be located in a bend on the south side.
In the eastern part, the citadel has been preserved in the form of a rectangle of pakhs walls. The length of the southern wall is 62.9 m; the northern wall has not been preserved. The eastern wall has been preserved at 31.3 m, the western at 40 m. At a height of 4.6 m from the base, the western and southern walls are decorated with closed semi-columns about 1 m in diameter. There are no corrugations on the eastern wall facing the city wall. At a heigh
Eres-kala/Эрес-кала
Eres-kala (Rus. Эрес-кала, Uzb. Эрес қалъа). Dated to: IV century BC - the beginning of the I century AD
Currently in ruins, the monument was once a town consisting of a human settlement and a series of castles. Long time ago, the main canal of the ancient Kelteminar irrigation system went from Eres-kala through the Angka-kala fortress and Bazar-kala settlement. The town was located in the lower stretches of the canal. It was an irregular ellipse 360×220 m in size and included a central estate – a citadel with the ruler’s house.
Based on ceramic artefacts discovered at the monument, it was dated to the 3rd-5th century AD, while numerous ceramic finds belonging to the Kangju culture of Khorezm (4th century BC-early 1st century AD) suggest that the object was founded in the antiquity but continued to function until the 5th-6th centuries.
Eres-kala is one of 53 monuments in the region that have been scrupulously studied and documented. The purpose of the research is to assess the potential outstanding universal value of historical and cultural objects in the region and develop further strategy for their possible inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The research has been carried out in coordination with the University College London, with an all-round support from the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO and the regional administrations (khokimiyats) of Karakalpakstan.
This is the 6th object from Karakalpakstan that we publish on our pages in social networks. The results of further research in Karakalpakstan are going to be published within the Heritage of Karakalpakstan series, on Facebook and LinkedIn, 2 times a month.
Эрес-кала , (узб. Эрес қалъа). Датировка: IVв.до н.э.-начало I в. н.э.
Сейчас — это руины города, которые когда-то представляли комплекс, состоящий из городища и за
3D model of the monument Big Guldursun 3D модель памятника Большой Гульдурсун
Big Guldursun (Rus. Большой Гульдурсун, Uzb. Катта Гулдурсин). Dated to: 4th-3rd centuries BCE, 12th-13th centuries AD
In plan, this is an irregular rectangle, 350 х 230 m in size, its corners facing the points of the compass. The entrance is in the middle of the south-eastern wall. The plinths of the walls and towers are built of pakhsa (rammed earth), the upper parts – mud bricks 40 х 40 х 10 cm in size. They have been preserved to their full height, which in some places reaches 15 m, and form the main body of a medieval fortified wall. When the fortress was renovated at the time of Khorezmshah, the internal wall of an antique gallery with loopholes was demolished, while the external one was plastered with pakhsa. Now, as the interior plaster has fallen off, two rows of blocked antique loopholes arranged in a chessboard order can be seen looking inside the fortress. Blocked archways can be observed at a big height in the pakhsa wall.
The fortress was strengthened with a barrier in front of the wall equipped with a second row of towers, which were to defend the approach to it from the sides. The gate structure was semi-circular in plan. There are signs that the fortress was not widely used in the medieval period, which suggests its strictly strategic significance.
Artefacts found inside the fortress include antique and medieval ceramics, bronze handicrafts and adornments, antique and medieval coins, including those dated to the 10th-11th centuries, which does not exclude the possibility that the second period of its functioning began earlier.
The fortress was studied by archaeologists Ya. G. Gulyamov in 1937, S. P. Tolstov in 1940 and O. T. Dospanov in 1987-1994. The Karakalpak folk epic Guldursun is associated with the history of the fortress. Archaeologist S. P. Tolstov recorded the text of this poem in 1957. The poem reflects scenes of the fight of the Khorezmian people against the Mongol invaders.
Over 2,640 photogr
3D model of the Small Kyrk-kyz-kala. 3Д-модель малого Кырк-кыз-кала
The Small Kyrk-kyz-kala (Uzbek: Kichik Qirq qiz qal'a). Dating: 4th-3rd centuries BC, 3rd-4th centuries AD. The fortress was discovered by S. P. Tolstov in 1938.
The fortress consists of different-shaped western and eastern parts adjacent to each other. The western one was an irregular oval with an area of about 4300 square meters, complanate in the north. In its western part the wall is divided by a wide gully, possibly formed in place of a gate. The ends of the open wall, separated by the gully, do not coincide by their mutual direction (the western end is located north of the eastern one). The double inter-tower wall of this oval part of the fortress, having a total thickness of up to 7 meters, included a 2.1-meter wide corridor running between the walls. The wall rests on its adobe foundation. The maximum preserved height of the outer wall is 10 meters, the inner wall is partially preserved up to 6 meters. The walls thickness is about 2.5 and 2.4 meters, respectively, at the level of the upper tier of the firing ports. The walls taper out towards the base (the slope is about 90 degrees).
In the plan view, the eastern part of the fortress was a segment of a circle attached to the oval part thereof. Towers were erected at the corners and at the outer gates, located in the middle of the southern wall of the fortress, at the point where its oval and segment-like parts meet. The corner towers survived to a height of about 7 meters, and had no chambers. They were, in effect, high adobe plinths with parapets (the preserved height of the parapets was about 1 meter). The fortress wall of the eastern part was narrower than that of the western. Sandstone or malmstone slabs had been placed under the foundations of the walls and towers. Both parts of the fortress were probably connected by a gate in the middle of the eastern wall of the oval fortification. The wall forms a loop open at its western end, directed inside the oval part of the fortress.
The decline of this
Dzhanbas-kala (4th-3rd century BC, 4th century AD).
The fortress was designed in the form of a regular quadrilateral with the dimensions of 200 m x 170 m. The fortress was surrounded by two walls, 10 m high and 5 m thick, with a 2.5 m wide passage between them.
The fortress has a single gate; a complex structure with a square shape and several circles was built in its front part. The wall originally made of rammed earth was later rebuilt using mud bricks. Opposite the gate was a 30m long street which led to the temple and divided the inner structure of the city into two parts (mahalla). About 200 families lived there (according to S. P. Tolstov the fortress was inhabited by about 1000 people).
One of the most important elements of the defensive system of Dzhanbas-Kala is a complex structure in front of the gate, of which one side protrudes from the wall for 17 m, and has a separate 4 m wide entrance.
Another important element in the protection of Dzhanbas-kala is a corridor (passage). The width of the corridor matches the width of similar passages across all cities of the Khorezm oasis. It helped the citizens to quickly strengthen the defense in the weakest places. A hive-shaped clay oven was found in one of the premises. It was identified as a fire sanctuary, while the whole building was the city's "House of Fire".
The topographic and architectural layout of Dzhanbas-kala follows a carefully elaborated plan. Raw bricks were the principal building material for the construction of the fortress. At first, clay (pakhsa) layer was used to build the walls of the fortress. During the second building period, on top of the clay layer of the rammed earth wall was complemented with mud brick structures. The bricks have different signs (double straight lines, circles, semicircles, various alphabetic signs, etc.).
The following data was collected to ensure the site’s adequate documentation:
- 2,680 photographs (including detailed aerial photographs of architectural and
The mortuary tower of Chilpyk.
The mortuary tower of Chilpyk, erected in the 2nd – 4th centuries A.D., at the turn of historical eras, belongs to the period of prosperity of the Zoroastrian culture in the Ancient Khorezm.
In the 9th – 11th centuries, it was used by the local communities as a beacon.
The monument was first explored in 1940 by the Khorezm Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR under the leadership of S.P. Tolstov, and was preliminarily identified as a mortuary tower, or dakhma, by the functional purpose.
In the plan view, Chilpyk has the shape of an open, slightly oblate circle with the diameter of approximately 65 to 79 m. The walls reach the height of 15 m in some places, and were made from pakhsa (rammed clay) blocks each having 0.8 to 1.05 m tall. The width of the tapered walls at the top is 2-3 m, while it is 4.8 to 5.5 m in the lower part. The external wall surfaces form an 80 degrees angle to the base.
A rock protrudes from the middle of the internal platform. The space between this rock and the wall is filled with sand and clay right to the top of the rock. The thickness of the sand and clay mixture is divided into horizontal strata, and, vertically, the sand fill is divided by baffles or small radial walls, made from bricks of antique dimensions (40x40x10 to 11 cm).
Between the two sides of the wall open ring, there are the remains of a staircase, approximately 20 meters long, which should have had about 75 stairs. In front of the first step, some remains of a ramp can be traced which could be 1.25 m long. Next to this staircase, there was also an underground entrance in the form of a long tunnel, about 22 m long, made directly under the rammed clay wall. Nowadays, it is also wrecked. Besides, on the internal part of Chilpyk tower, U-shaped (in cross-section) ceramic troughs were laid right at the base of the walls. The length of the best preserved one of these is 77.8 cm, the height is 9.5 cm, t
Mizdakhan/Миздахан
Mizdakhan is a complex of archaeological sites, located on three hills and a plain between them, covering an area of more than 200 hectares (8 km west of the city of Khojeyli). Researchers identify Mizdakhan with the city of Mazda, mentioned in Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, and believed to have been built in honor of the main deity of fire worshipers, Ahura Mazda.
The complex of antiquities of Mizdahkan includes:
1. Gyaur-Kala fortress, located on the flat top of the western hill, built in the 4th century BC and aimed to protect the peace and quiet of a large city that once existed on the eastern hill;
2. The ruins of the city of the Golden Horde period with an area of about 80 hectares, which contains the remains of buildings, neighborhoods and city streets located to the west of the hills;
3. Suburban and urban irrigation network with traces of agricultural and irrigation layouts, which stretch to the east and southeast of the hills at a distance of up to 1.5 km;
4. An ancient necropolis located on the eastern hill with an area of about 100 hectares. According to historians, its age exceeds two thousand years and it is one of the oldest necropolises in Central Asia.
It is a place for a number of unique architectural monuments, including the Shamun Nabi mausoleum, the Mazlumkhan Sulu mausoleum, the Khalifa Erezhep mausoleum, the caravanserai, etc.
The following data was collected as a result of documenting the site:
- 6276 photographs (including detailed aerial photographs of facades and roofs of architectural elements, perspective and artistic aerial photographs, panoramic photographs, as well as photographs revealing visual points in the context of the surrounding urban environment at the level of the human eye);
- video fly-overs, conveying a complete picture of the volume of the monument and the town-planning (urban) context;
As a result, the following has been obtained:
- detailed orthophotomosaics and 3D-model of the territory o
An American artist Keith Haring believed that art should free the soul, awaken the imagination, and inspire a person to achieve more. Thus, the publication of an album-catalogue of works by the Samarkand artist Leon Bure has inspired a friend of IICAS, a director Victor Zadvitsky, to create short thematic video albums. Be sure that in such a format Bure’s works look just as worthily as on the walls of the Samarkand Museum-Reserve, where the largest exposition of this master is located.
We are very grateful to Victor Yurievich for his interest in the publication and we bring his works to your attention at the following link: http://unesco-iicas.org/gallery/index?page=2
Американский живописец Кит Харринг считал, что искусство должно освобождать душу, будить воображение и вдохновлять человека на большее. Так, публикация альбома-каталога работ самаркандского художника Леона Бурэ вдохновила друга МИЦАИ режиссера Виктора Задвицкого на создание небольших тематических видеоальбомов. Будьте уверены, в таком формате работы Бурэ смотрятся так же достойно, как и на стенах Самаркандского музея-заповедника, где находится самая большая экспозиция этого мастера.
Мы признательны Виктору Юрьевичу за его интерес к публикации и предлагаем вашему вниманию его работы: http://unesco-iicas.org/ru/gallery/index?page=2
3D model of the architectural complex Bahouddin Naqshband/3Д-модель архитектурного комплекса Бахоуддин Накшбанд
With reference to our post on the Bahouddin Naqshband architectural complex (https://www.facebook.com/iicasunesco/posts/934981293591099) we are excited to present a detailed 3D model of the 16th century Khonako of Abdulazizkhan, which is one of the complex's largest and most recognizable buildings.
В продолжении поста об архитектурном комплексе Бахоуддин Накшбанд — культовом ансамбле, Бухарской области (ссылка на пост: https://www.facebook.com/iicasunesco/posts/934981293591099) представляем Вашему вниманию 3Д-модель одного из самых крупных и узнаваемых архитектурных объектов ансамбля - Ханака Абдулазизхана XVI века.
3D model of Varakhsha settelment.
3D модель городища Варахша.
The minaret in Vobkent. Вобкентский минарет
3D model of the Vobkent minaret.
3D модель Вобкентского минарета.
3D model of Khazira Chashma Ayub
3D модель Хазира Чашма Аюб
