The Great Silk Road Kazakhstan section of the Silk Road. The Great Silk Road in Kazakhstan

For centuries, crowds of people speaking diverse languages filled the bazaars of Asia, and long caravans crept along dusty roads carrying precious gems and silks, spices and dyes, gold and silver, and exotic birds and animals to Europe.

Yet the Silk Road was to become not only a great trade route but the melting pot of two very different civilizations; those of the East and the West, with their specific cultural traditions, religious beliefs, and scientific and technical achievements. Central Asia, situated between China and India in the east, bordering on the European world in the west, spreading between the Volga and Siberia in the north, and between Persia and Arabia in the south, for almost two thousand years stood at the crossroads of the world's great civilizations and cultures.

Much has been lost to history. The sands of time have covered many ancient towns, but the careful hands of archeologists and restorers have succeeded in finding and restoring for us rare treasures from the old cultures of the Semirechye (Seven Rivers region) and Central Asia.

Branches and routes of the Silk Route didn't remain static over the course of time - they changed for various reasons: some of them gained significance and flourished, while others ceased to exist, causing the decline of the towns and settlements in their path.

In the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. the route passed through China to the west via the Semirechie and southern Kazakhstan. The flourishing period of the Silk Road through Central Asia and Kazakhstan declined during the 8th-12th centuries.

The huge territory remembers the slow plodding of camel caravans, for thousands of years wandering the wide routes of the Great Silk Road.

This part of the road represents a unique complex of historical monuments, archeology, architecture, town planning and monumental art. The cities of Otrar, Taraz, Sairan (Ispidzhab), Turkestan (Yassy), Syab, Balasagyn and others were not only shopping centers, but centers of science and culture.

Taraz. In ancient times the town was called the 'town of merchants'. Narrow streets, like streams, ran towards the center - the noisy bazaar. The bazaar of Taraz was the focus of the city's life. It was thanks to the bazaar that the town came into being, with a citadel, mosques, caravanserais, mud-walled cottages, walled courtyards and craftsmens' workshops. It seemed that people from all over the world were coming to the bazaar in order to sell, buy or exchange something. One could sell and buy practically anything. The ancients were right to say: "Taraz bazaar is the mirror of the world".

Over the course of many centuries it was a center of non-ferrous metallurgy. The copper articles of Taraz workshops such as jugs, cosmetic boxes, lamps, decorations for armaments, clothes and harnesses traveled all over the world. An example of casting art is the ritual teapot (Kazakh) in the mausoleum of Ahmet Yasavi in Turkestan; it is second to none in its dimensions. Its diameter is 2.2 m, and weight - 2 tons.

In 1896, at the All-Russia exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod, Kazakh bracelets made of silver caused a real sensation, and they were awarded gold medals.

The present-day green bazaar is on the very spot of the ancient bazaar of two thousand years ago. When you walk along its rows, you feel the dust of millennia under your feet.

Otrar. "Traveler! Here are the ruins of the fortress town that stemmed for half a year the advance of the Mongol hordes to Central Asia and the Caucases, Russia and the Eastern European countries, and which showed resistance to foreign invaders in the following centuries", runs the inscription on the cast-iron plate installed on the entrance to the Otrar archeological reserve and museum. The Otrar oasis included over 150 small towns, fortresses, castles and fortified settlements, connected to one another by a chain of caravanserais of the Great Silk Road. In its heyday, the population of Otrar numbered about a quarter of a million.

Date: 2015-01-29; view: 1343