Trip to Akmechet Mausoleums.

"Whoever goes on a pilgrimage to Akmechet from the west, let him stop on the way at the grave of my nephew Kulshan and read a prayer."

Beket Ata words among the people.

Ancient Monuments of Atyrau Region.

"The first cave on the mountain bank was dug about 50 years before the present time by a Kirghiz of the Adaev clan of the Mughal branch, Beket Baytele, who came annually from Ust-Urta to Emba for summer nomadism. Here, in his free time, he taught male children Tatar literacy and the law of God, and the rest of the time he retired to his cave to pray.
Sometimes he stayed here to spend the winter alone with an insignificant supply of food, sufficient for one Kirghiz for no more than one day, which is why his relatives, who came here the following spring from Ust-Urta, were surprised to find the abandoned man not only alive, but also not at all thinner.
The entire horde, repeating many fabulous stories and miracles from the life of this Kirghiz, reveres him as a saint. He died about 40 years ago and is buried on the Ust-Urta cliff in the Oglandy tract, near the junction of the peninsula Mangishlak with Ust-Urt.
They also say that the relatives of the deceased gather here at the grave every year, pray over his ashes, and then the eldest of the three sons he left behind climbs into the grave alone and shaves his head and trims the mustache of his deceased father, which grows every year.
We find in one place on the river side an opening that looks more like a wolf's hole, into which, however, a person, albeit with difficulty, can crawl. This opening extends into the ground no more than 3 fathoms (1 fathom = 2.13 m - Ya.F.), in a straight direction to the southwest, and then leads to a round room that is 2.5 fathoms in diameter and up to 4 arshins (1 arshin = 0.71 m - Ya.F.) high.
Its ceiling is a flat dome, in the middle of which a narrow hole has been drilled to the surface of the ground, letting in a weak light into the room. On both sides of the room, right at the entrance to it, two filled-in pits are noticeable; according to the Kirghiz, these were digs with fresh water.
On the right side there is a small room connected to the first door, near which there is a flat iron staff with a round and pointed iron end at the bottom. In the southwestern wall of the first room there is another door, leading into a round room, slightly larger in size than the first, and with a vault at the top, supported by a tetrahedral column, hollowed out in the middle.
The walls of this room are not cut out in the form of a perfect circle, but with 6 symmetrically located depressions, of which one, located opposite the door, is somewhat wider and deeper than the others and is generally very similar to those that are made in Tatar mosques.
There are no floors in the rooms; the walls are finished roughly, but quite correctly. The soil in which this mosque is hollowed out consists of strong chalk. Above the mosque, on the surface of the ground, two or three small heaps of chalk are piled up, probably over the bodies of dead Kirghiz.
Several wooden poles are attached to the heaps, on which so many rags torn from clothes, horse hair and half-rotten bones are hung that, having seen and understood their meaning, one cannot help but be surprised at the religiosity of the semi-savages who left these insignificant signs of respect for the sanctity of the place.
Akmekt-Kuldzhan consists of two sections, separated from each other by 7 sazhens. Both of these mosques are hollowed out in the southern slope of a small hill, also consisting of chalk soil. The first of them, lying to the east, has a small opening at the beginning, leading into a semicircular room 1.5 sazhens in diameter, with a low arch at the top.
In the middle of the vault there is a hole, into which a hub from a Russian cart wheel is inserted, letting in a weak light into the interior, at the entrance to which on the right side, right by the door, a place for sacrifices is arranged, as evidenced by several half-burnt reeds wrapped in cotton paper smeared with lard; on both sides there are two small, not completely dark rooms knocked out, connected to the main one by windows closed with chalk slabs.
In one of them, namely, in the one that is arranged on the left side, lies a half-decayed body of a man with his head to the northeast, all wrapped in a piece of some rotten material; at his head there was an iron staff etched with silver with various inscriptions, attached to a wooden handle, leaning against the wall.
On the wall opposite the staff hangs a small bush of half-decayed linen. Another section of Akmecheti-Kuljan is arranged (just like the first, but consists of only one room, not particularly remarkable). In all of them, once a year, the Kirghiz perform a religious service according to the Mohammedan law, because the builders of these caves were Kirghiz, and here is what they say about one of them.
The first cave on the mountain bank of the Emba was dug out about 50 years before the present time by a Kirghiz of the Adaev clan of the Mughal branch, Beket Baytele, who came annually from Ust-Urt to Emba for summer nomadism. Here in his free time he taught the male children Tatar literacy and the law of God, and the rest of the time he retired to his cave to pray.
Sometimes he stayed here alone for the winter with an insignificant supply of food, sufficient for one Kirghiz for no more than one day, which is why his relatives, who came here the following spring from Ust-Urt, were surprised to find the abandoned one not only alive, but also not at all thinner.
The entire Horde, repeating many fabulous stories and miracles from the life of this Kirghiz, reveres him as a saint. He died about 40 years ago and is buried on the Ust-Urt cliff in the Ushandy tract (Oglandy - K.M.), near the junction of the Mangyshlak Peninsula with Ust-Urt.
They also say that the relatives of the deceased gather here at the grave every year, pray over his ashes, and then the eldest of the three sons he left behind climbs into the grave alone and shaves his head and trims the mustache of his deceased father, which grows back every year.
After such a miracle, of course, there are far more rags, hair, bones and other rubbish hanging over his grave than over his mosque. The other two caves were built by Beket's student, the Kyrgyz Kuljan, whose half-decayed body can still be seen in a special section of his mosque. He also taught children literacy and the law of God, but was not famous for any miracles during his life, and therefore is not recognized by the Kyrgyz as a saint."

Authority::
"Topographic description of the northern part of Ust-Urt and the adjacent area up to the river, compiled by the corps topographer, second lieutenant Alekseev." 1853. "History and culture of Atyrau in Russian sources (XVIII - XX centuries)". Compiled by M.K. Kipiev. Atyrau. IP "Sisengaliyev Zh.M." 2014. T. I. P. 316 - 318. 400 p.