Archaeological sites of Shu district

Ancient settlement Balasagun (Aktobe).

Archaeological sites of Shu district.

“There were many cities and peoples
Everything buried time, scattered to dust.
We had many tribes and villages,
Now try to find their tracks”

“Graceful knowledge” (Кұтты білік). Yusuf Balasaguni. (5.P. 49)

Trip to settlement of Balasugun.

Balasagun settlement (Aktobe) is located at an altitude of 545 meters above sea level, 435 meters from southern shore of Aksu reservoir, 2.2 kilometers southeast of village of Aksu, 4 kilometers north of new Almaty-Taraz highway, in Shu district of Zhambyl region.
Most of the settlement is concentrated on the left bank of the Ak-Su River and a small part is located 535 meters from the main one to the east on the right bank of the river. The ruins of Aktobe are multi-layered (VI - XIII centuries). Ancient nomads not only built residential buildings, household and cultural objects, but were also thoroughly engaged in architecture.
But there are so few traces of them left now, and it is hard to believe that once upon a time in the vast steppe expanses of our homeland there were wide networks of cities with blooming gardens, magnificent buildings, mosques. The steppe has seen a lot in its time.
As a result of destructive bloody wars of conquest, once flourishing oases turned into deserts, cities into ruins, and their remains were buried forever in the ground, turned into burial mounds, into silent embankments. Aktobe is one of such cities.
According to the assumption of historians, it arose on the site of the city of Balasagun. Balasagun, a city on the banks of the Chu River, is known in history as the capital of the Turkic-speaking Karluks, Kara-Khitans, and Khitans. The birthplace of many outstanding representatives of culture and art.
The author of the immortal monument of medieval Turkic writing, Diuani-lugat at-Turk, Mahmud Kashgari, worked in Balasagun. A contemporary of the great Omar Khayyam, a remarkable poet of the XIth century, the author of the world-famous Kutadgu Bilik, Khas Khadzhip Yusuf Balasaguni, was born here.
Aktobe is a name that is often encountered in archaeological research. In the Zhambyl region alone, there are over 20 Aktobes related to archeology. It should be emphasized that not all of them were originally called Aktobe. Whether the place Balasagun was really called Aktobe earlier, or this name was given because the ruins and earthen mounds seemed light white from afar, it is difficult and controversial to say anything definitive now.
Therefore, there are no other reasons not to call this place other than Aktobe. This city has been turned into an archaeological base for the Kazakh National State University (KazNSU). University students undergo archaeological practice here, carry out excavations, and reveal the secrets of the city.
Aktobe is one of the largest monuments of the Middle Ages, the area of the city covers 70 square kilometers, located at the confluence of the Aksu and Karabalta rivers into the Chu. Numerous mounds, ancient sites. In 1980, aerial photography was conducted from a height of 200 m.
The photographs clearly show city streets, fortress mounds, and guard posts. The city is surrounded by a 52 km long moat. The city consists of three parts: the citadel (in French, a small city, an inner city fortress), shakhristan (the residence of the ruler’s workers), and rabad (where the rest of the residents lived).
The settlement consists of two shakhristans, a citadel, and an urban district surrounded by long ramparts. Shahristan 1 is rectangular in shape (380 x 250 meters), 6 – 7 meters high. In its middle part there is a citadel - square in plan, with a side of 100 m, a height of 10 m.
The dimensions of shakhristan 2 - (300 x 250 meters), the height of 3 - 6 meters, the urban district is surrounded by long ramparts: the length of the first rampart is 17 kilometers, the second - 25 kilometers to the second rampart from the western and southern sides adjoin 4 semicircles of ramparts.
Archaeological excavations are carried out in all areas of the settlement. It has been established that the city arose in the Vth century, in the ancient Turkic era, during the state of the Karakhanid dynasty it reached its highest prosperity and became the capital of the state.
The excavated remains of residential buildings, administrative buildings, hotels, granaries, wineries, bakeries, tandoor ovens and oriental baths indicate that it was a large city. In many places, water pipes were laid, fountains were built. If we take into account the established scientific understanding of the settlement in Muslim cities, we can assume that the population of the city and its environs reached 675,000 people.
In one of the rooms of the shakhristan, a sabre, a frying pan with a handle, a candlestick stand, a rare find in archeology - a seal with an image of a lion, a cup, a cauldron, a cauldron lid, clay vases, fragments of dishes with well-preserved drawings were found.
Similar items and traces of caravan routes indicate that the city was a major trading center. The city experienced several stages of ups and downs. The city was destroyed during the reign of the Kara-Khitans. The process was accelerated by feudal strife.
The Mongol conquerors did not stay here for long. The results of the Aktobe excavations indicate that the level of culture of the nomads was no worse than the level of culture of other Asian peoples who amazed Europe. Not to mention other things, ceramics, the design of houses, the architecture of buildings are not only complex, but also executed with great skill.
The culture, which was subjected to barbaric destruction during the Mongol invasion, was subsequently unable to reach its previous level. All this gave some scientists with a narrow outlook a reason to draw incorrect conclusions about the cultural backwardness of the "wild people" of the steppe.
However, this does not prevent the West from publishing and republishing the works of Avicenna, al-Biruni, al-Farabi, al-Khorezmi, Yusuf Balasaguni, Mahmud Kashgari. In the VIIth century, the Chinese traveler Xuan Jian wrote: "Balasa-gun is located not far west of Tokmak."
The things found during the excavations of the old city correspond to the era of Balasaguni. In the depths of Aktobe, many secrets are hidden, it could be called an open-air museum. Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor U.Kh. Shalekenov, archaeologists Madiyar Eleuov, Nurtaza Aldabergenov, Abdimanat Urazbaev have written many scientific works about this city.
Geographic coordinates of Aktobe settlement (main): N43°13'43 E74°03'01
Geographical coordinates of Aktobe settlement (located 535 meters to east of main): N43°13'43 E74°03'31