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During the opening ceremony of the 5th Asian Games, the pages of the history of the Turkmen nation were demonstrated in the figurative language of art. One of the parts of the colorful action was dedicated to Mashat-Misrian. This historical region was also called Dehistan.

The audience saw famous and well-known mausoleums, minarets and other masterpieces of medieval architecture preserved in the northern region of our country. This is Kunyaurgench - the capital of yet another state, founded by our remote ancestors...

In the Middle Ages, the Caspian Sea was called Khazar Sea, and the ships of many peoples, whose lands had access to its waters, sailed on the sea. The Turkmen, who lived on the eastern coast of Khazar-Caspian Sea, also were experienced seafarers and skilled fishermen, because fish was their main food.

The historical region in the southeastern Caspian region, which in ancient times was called Hyrcania, in the Middle Ages, was called Dehistan or Mashat-Misserian. It is a very old agricultural oasis, where a widely spread irrigation network almost continuously operated for almost three thousand years, from the end of the 3rd millennium BC up to the 15th century of Common Era. Numerous archaeological monuments of this region remind of what kind of an urbanized area it was until the water sources that fed it were running out.

This part of the South-Eastern Caspian region up to the foothills of the Kopetdag is called the Misrian Valley on modern geographic maps. In the 20th century those lands were not reclaimed by man, and the historical landscape was preserved there in the state of natural conservation, which resulted from the centuries-old desertification of an oasis abandoned by people. Consequently, the settlements of the remote past with their architecture, complex irrigation network, once cultivated fields and gardens have survived to this day in an incomparably better form than there, where the canal and modern farmlands are located.

Basically, constructions of the 11th to early 13th century, when Dehistan was a part of the state of the Great Seljuks, and then of the state of Khorezmshah, created by the Turkmen, have survived to this day. During this period, monumental buildings were built here, various crafts were widely spread. This is evidenced by the numerous finds of archaeologists, among which are outstanding examples of glazed earthenware. After the Mongol invasion and conquest, the entire region gradually faded by the reason of movement of caravan routes to other places, and complete desolation occurred as a result of the destruction of the dam on the Atrek River, which allowed feeding the irrigation network of the oasis.

The ruins of Misrian are still surrounded by a generally preserved double fortress wall with numerous towers and a moat; these are the demonstrative examples of powerful fortification. Inside shahristan (the main part of the city, protected by the walls), four verticals rise to 18-20 meters, well visible from afar in an equal desert landscape. Two of these verticals are pylons of the monumental portal of the cathedral mosque of the early 13th century.

The arch that joined them collapsed at the beginning of the 20th century, but the first person with a camera came here in 1902 and captured it in photograph, was a Russian military engineer Boris Kastalsky. Two other dominants are minarets with a round trunk and preserved only half of their original height.

The northern minaret is considered the oldest, which is confirmed by the inscription that survived on it, it was built by the architect Ali bin Ziyad in the years 1004-1005 together with the mosque, which is completely destroyed. Even the name of the customer is known, it is a certain Abu Jafar Ahmed.

The second minaret was built 120 meters to the south, but almost 200 years later, near the corner of the cathedral mosque. It was a yard-type mosque with columned galleries. Its main building, from which there were two pylons, had a square hall with a dome cover.

The decoration of both pylons combines the texture of brickwork with a rich ornamental decoration from figured hewn bricks with inserts of blue glaze. It is dominated by stylized vegetative motifs and inscriptions, and in some places the names of Shah Muhammad II and masters-builders are mentioned.

In Misriana there were at least four mosques: two were in shahristan and two were in the surrounding artisan suburb (rabat). Only in the photographs the appearance of the country-festive mosque “namazga” in the northern part of rabat was preserved: it was destroyed in the middle of the 20th century. The remains of another mosque with a minaret were opened as a result of excavations. Another mosque is known due to drawings and photographs made by researchers in the late 19th early 20th century.

Caravans traveled through Dehistan for many centuries, so it is not surprising that a lot of caravanserais were built here. The dehistan cities themselves grew largely due to the long existence of a trade artery that ran through the valley between the Caspian Sea and the Kopetdag mountain range.

Tracks of handicraft quarters, many remnants of pottery workshops, remained on the four sides of the Misrian. In Dehistan there was also a madrasah, the only one known in Turkmenistan, belonging to the pre-Mongol period. The high level of development of urban culture in Dehistan is evidenced by its improvement: it is established that it has a water supply and sewerage system, baths, brick pavement.

On the territory of the ancient cemetery Mashad, which was located in seven kilometers from the fortress, there were preserved several medieval mausoleums and one small memorial mosque Mashad-ata, which serves as an important local shrine.

In the 12th century, and then in the late Middle Ages (possibly in the 17th-19th centuries) the dilapidated building was reconstructed twice. All quadrangle of the mosque were dressed in a "shirt" of burnt bricks, from which the dome was also erected. In the interior there were preserved some fragments of the 9th-10th centuries, to which the unique carved mihrab belongs. It consists of three niches inscribed in each other, completely covered with deep ganch carvings with stylized floral ornamentation and Arabic inscriptions with a Kufic font.

A few years ago, this mihrab, like the entire interior of the hall, was subjected to restoration. Simultaneously, on the hill before the entrance to the mosque, archaeological excavations were carried out. As a result, under a meter of rubble found neatly paved courtyard with a pool (hauz) in the middle. Around this courtyard were the premises of the Sufi monastery (khanaka), where in the 11th-12th centuries the Sufi monks lived. Numerous objects of their use, from heavy millstones to bronze lamps, ceramic dishes and glass bubbles for incense, made up a large collection of archaeological finds.

Highly developed fortification, artistic merit, performing technique and the number of significant architectures of Dehistan put this provincial region in a par with such metropolitan centers of urban life as Merv, Gurganj, and Samarkand.

Since the whole territory of the ancient oasis in the Caspian region was declared a State Historical and Cultural Reserve in 1991, it was repeatedly the object of excavation of Turkmen archaeologists and their colleagues from France and Spain.

... Kunyaurgench in the annals of antiquity was called Gurganj; this is the largest archaeological park in the north of Turkmenistan, on the left bank of the old riverbed of the Amu Darya. It is a vast zone of a protected landscape with many ruins and relatively whole monuments, adjacent to the modern city of Kunyaurgench.

Once in Gurganj great thinkers of the East al-Biruni, al-Khorezmi, Avicenna lived and created; here was the main stronghold of resistance to the forces of Genghis Khan. Turkmens of Kunyaurgench preserved in their memory not only rich folklore, but also living crafts, many features of the traditional way of life. Several shrines of Kunyaurgench recall the number of saints buried here and still serves as a center for the attraction of Muslim pilgrims even from the remotest countries of Asia. First of all, it is the mausoleum of the Sufi sheikh Najmeddin Kubra and the adjacent ancient necropolis, popularly called "Uch yuz altmysh" ("Three hundred and sixty").

But the main attractions of the famous in the past the city of building masters, artists and decorators are the architectural pearls built by them for centuries.

The time of foundation of Kunyaurgench is not yet established. Excavations of the hill, now known as Kyrkmolla, revealed the contours of a powerful ancient fortress erected on an earlier cultural stratum with pottery of the 5th-2nd centuries BC. There is a legend explaining the origin of the name (in literal translation from the Turkmen "forty mullahs"). According to the legend, there was a huge and beautiful palace, where 40 wise men taught sciences to 40 thousand students. It is recognized that this place is connected with a large madrassa, which is called the Mamun Academy, or the library of Khivaki.

Undoubtedly, here was the original core of the city with a well-developed fortification. This only confirms the assumption of scientists that it is Urgench in the transcription Urva (or Urga) is mentioned in the Avesta. The fact that people inhabited this territory in the first millennium BC is also evidenced by the Behistun inscription of King Darius I, in which Khorezm appears as one of twenty-three countries subject to the Achaemenid Empire.

In the Chinese chronicles of the Han period (1st century AD) there is also a message about Urgench in the transcription Yue-gan. The next mention, again in Chinese sources, refers to the 7th century. During this period, the revival of Khorezm began, which brought life back to the cities, where for some reason unknown to us it froze in the 4th century: the left-bank Kunyauaz, Izmykshir, Diyarbekir, Shasenem and others.

In the year 712, all of Khorezm was conquered by the Arabs, after which Kunyaurgench (Gurganj) began to be called in the Arabic mode of Jurjaniyah. He grew rapidly, as he occupied a favorable position at the crossroads of trade routes from the south to the northwest - to the Volga River, and to the east - to Mongolia and China. Under the Samanids, the capital of the region was the right-bank town of Kyat, where the local dynasty of Khorezmshah ruled as a vassal.

In the left-bank part of Khorezm with the main city, the governors appointed by the Samanids ruled. Over time, they declared their ownership independent of Kyat, which led to the separation of the north from the south. In the year 995, the emir al-Mamun ibn-Muhammad managed to conquer Kyat, overthrow the pre-Islamic dynasty, re-unite Khorezm and transfer the title of Khorezmshah to his clan.

At the beginning of the 11th century, filled with formidable, bloody military events, long voyages and complex political intrigues, the reign of Mamun I after a brief stay on the throne of his eldest son Ali ibn-Mamun was replaced by a brilliant period of reign of his other son, Mamun ibn-Mamun. It was with him in Gurganj, which eclipsed the glory of Bukhara, the capital of the defeated Samanids, that a unique circle of scientists of the court "Academy" was formed. Her adornment was the great encyclopedist Abu Reyhan Mohammed ibn-Ahmed al-Biruni (973-1050) and the brilliant natural scientist, doctor and philosopher Abu Ali ibn Sina (980-1037), known in the West as Avicenna.

This brilliant period in the history of the city continued until the enlightened monarch Mamun II died in 1017, when Khorezm was conquered by Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi. And a quarter of a century later the victorious Seljuks seized power over all the possessions of the Ghaznavids...

In the year 1097 there was an event that marked the beginning of the last and the most vivid dynasty of Khorezmshahs - the Anushteginids. The ruler of Khorezm was appointed Qutb ad-din Mohammed I. He ruled for 30 years and until his death was a loyal subject of Sultan Sanjar, who then confirmed on the throne of Khorezmshahs his son Atsyz. He gradually subdued the entire northwestern part of Central Asia. His grandson Tekesh ibn Il-Arslan in the year 1194 expanded his possessions to the size of a medieval empire.

Tekesh's son Ala-ad-din Muhammad II completed the design of the state of the great Khorezmshahs, which reached its greatest power with him: it stretched from the northern regions of the Caspian to the Persian Gulf and from the Caucasus to the Hindu Kush. All this brilliant period Gurganj was the imperial center in which arts, crafts and trade prospered.

Large footprints on the sands of time of the Khorezmshah era remained on the site of the ancient settlement of Kunyaurgench in the form of archaeological and architectural monuments. Among them are two hipped-shaped mausoleums, which are called differently, because they themselves have not retained any inscriptions indicating any specific names.

The first, earlier mausoleum, is conventionally called the mausoleum of the Khorezmshah Il-Arslan, but in the folk tradition there is the name of Pahrazi-Mazar named after the famous scientist-encyclopaedist Fakhr-Ad-Din Razi who lived in Gurganj. Admittedly, this is the oldest surviving building in the capital and one of the most outstanding buildings of the whole pre-Mongol period of Central Asia, combining unique technical and artistic features with ideas and images of a future, not yet embodied architecture.

That is why several generations of art historians have been returning to this miniature and unique miracle of medieval architecture over the past hundred years, trying to unravel the mystery of its origin and the harmony of its simple forms, proportions and cladding.

The second mausoleum poses to scientists not less, if not great questions. He also has two names. In the folk tradition it is Mazar Sharap Baba, or Geok-gumbez (Blue Dome), but written sources unambiguously indicate that it is nothing more than the mausoleum of Khorezmshah Tekesh, the son of Il-Arslan who, during his lifetime, built himself a tomb in a complex with a large madrasah.

Excavations confirmed that the mausoleum, now towering in splendid solitude, crowned with a dome in the form of a cone, was originally part of a large building, from which only a few sections of the basement remained. Whatever it was, we got to the almost complete safety of the majestic monumental structure, which has no equal in originality of design and mastery of performance, the courage of engineering thought, the beauty of details and the elegance of interior decoration. It is an unusual and, at first sight, does not fit into the canons of architecture of that time.

However, if you compare this construction with other monuments of the Islamic world from Asia Minor and Transcaucasia to the borders of China and India, you can see how organically it is connected with many of them, developing something in some way, and in some way anticipating the best achievements of unknown masters building art.

From medieval written sources, it is known that in Kunyaurgench (Gurganj) there were the buildings of the mentioned "Mamun Academy", madrasah and Nizam al-Mulka library, madrassah of Mohammed An-Nesevi, Shihab ad-din Khivaki, and mausoleum of Imam az-Zamakhshari, not to mention palaces, mosques, caravanserais and city gates.

The ruins of the cathedral Juma mosque of the 11th century are well studied in Kunyaurench, from which many stone bases of the huge column hall and the foundation of the minaret were preserved, but later they were rebuilt many times. According to legend, this was the place, where 40 thousand Muslims could simultaneously read namaz. This minaret was built a thousand years ago; the lead plate, found here by local residents at the end of the 19th century, says that the construction was conducted on the orders of Khorezmshah Mamun in the year 1011.

The pre-Mongolian part of the city (Dash-kala) occupies the southern half of the settlement. Here is the location of three of the four city gates. Medieval writers write about the many quarters and two government palaces, about the pleasure gardens in the vicinity and about the large canal that crossed Gurganj. There almost are not historical traces here, only in some places up to five meters high there are towering walls of Tash-kala.

In the year 1221, after a six-month siege, the city was taken and destroyed by the Mongols. However, thanks to Gurganj convenient location, which became known as Urgench, was relatively quick to revive and preserve the importance of the trade and artisan and administrative center.

Entering the Ulus of Juchi, and then becoming almost independent in the system of the Golden Horde Khanate, Khorezm entered a prosperous phase that lasted until Timur's campaigns. This is evidenced by the great Arabian geographer and traveler Ibn-Battuta, who arrived in Urgench in 1333 and named it the largest and prosperous Turkmen city.

It really was perhaps the most brilliant period of its history. A special role in the development of Urgench in the first half of the 14th century was played by the local ruler Kutlug-Timur and his wife Tyurabek-hanym. Under their patronage, restoration of the surviving monuments of the pre-Mongolian time was carried out; the minaret of the 11th century was completed or refurbished at the suburban mosque (namazga), which became one of the tallest structures in the world. With them, a considerable area within the city wall was built up, preserved as an earth mound with a length of up to 10 kilometers.

In the same period the mausoleum of Tyurabek-khanym was built. It is a real masterpiece of medieval architecture, preserved to this day. It combines elegance and monumentality, unrestrained play of color in classical arabesques, which are filigree mosaic panels. With a taste and sense of proportion architects used here the glaze in the strict framing of the noble matte terra cotta facing of polished bricks. Never before has the architecture of Central Asia known such a luxurious decoration, such a creative freedom in the organization of space.

Kutlug-Timur died in 1335, perpetuating himself in the inscription on the minaret, which since then bears his name. Several more Kunyaurgench monuments are associated with his time, among them the so-called caravanserai gate, and the mausoleum-khanaka Najmeddin Kubra. However, in the year 1388 a new catastrophe occurred - Timur subjected Urganch to devastation, defeating most of the buildings and hijacking the remaining population in Samarkand. But most importantly, Tamerlane brought from here the whole artels of the masters-architects and builders who then erected for him the beautiful buildings of Samarkand. After this event, the ancient Urgench no longer recovered.

Since the 15th century, global processes began that hindered the revival of the city. The channel of the Amu Darya has changed, and the river has moved away from the city by almost 40 km. In addition, the development of sea routes between Europe, India and China, as well as the discovery of America, led to the gradual disappearance of transcontinental caravan trade and caused a general decline in the economy of Central Asia, which had since found itself on the periphery of world civilization.

After almost another century the general decline was aggravated by complete dehydration of the surroundings, and the population of Urgench had to leave their native places. In the year 1646, Khiva Khan Abulgazi allowed them to settle in 190 km to the southeast, between Khiva and the main channel of the Amu Darya. The new city was founded there and received the name Urgench. The ruins of the once great Gurganj have since been called Old Urgench (in Turkmen language is “Kunyaurgench”). Life began to return to that place when in 1831 north of the mausoleum of Najm ad-din al-Kubra was dug a water channel Khan-yab. A small village of a rural type formed on its banks, it became the basis of the present city of Kunyaurgench.

The world could only in the 21st century estimate the complete genius of the nameless architects of Kunyaurgench. The entire historic centre is a Unesco World Heritage Site. This happened in the summer of 2005, exactly 20 years after the creation of the State Historical and Cultural Reserve "Kunyaurgench".