Sauran

Sauran was a walled city on the Syr Darya route that flourished from around the tenth to the eighteenth century, at one point serving as a capital of the White Horde, and medieval writers described its double walls, its minarets and an underground irrigation system, kariz, that brought water from a distance to feed the town. Unlike Otrar it was never overbuilt, and the oval circuit of its earthen walls still stands several metres high in open steppe, enclosing an interior that is largely unexcavated, with the lines of streets and buildings visible as mounds. The gates and the ditch can be traced. There is no visitor centre, no fence and generally nobody else there.

History

In the 10th century the Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi described Sawran as a large city with seven walls and a mosque in the inner city. The town supplied the brick and tile for the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, commissioned by Timur in 1389 about 40 km away, and the poet Vasifi, who came in 1514 to 1515, described its karez water system (Wikipedia, Sawran (Kazakhstan)).

What's there

• The wall circuit - the oval of earthen ramparts standing in the steppe.
• The gates - the breaks in the wall where entrances stood.
• The unexcavated interior - street lines and building mounds under grass.
• The steppe setting - the empty plain the city stands in.

When to go

April to May and September to October; the steppe here is fiercely hot in summer and cold and windy in winter. Spring brings green and flowers. Late afternoon light shows the wall lines best.

Good to know

Nothing is excavated, interpreted or signposted; the site is a set of earthworks. The access track from the highway is rough and unsigned. There is no shade, water or facilities. It rewards reading beforehand.

Nearby

Turkestan lies southeast; Otrar is south.

Key facts