Site visited April 2014. The grandiose Timurid era mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is the highlight of Kazakhstan and also one of the highlights in Central Asia.

I flew from Almaty to Shymkent which is the usual hub for visiting the town of Turkestan. From my hotel I took a bus to Shymkent central bazaar where I changed to marshrutka. The journey to Turkestan lasted three hours. At Turkestan bus station I took a taxi to the site. It was a sunny and warm spring day and the site was full of local people.

The mausoleum is very impressive and you really feel yourself dwarfed by its sheer size. Especially the entrance portal is huge. It is easy to notice that the front facade is unfinished. There are lots of birds nesting in the holes of entrance portal. Backside of the mausoleum and the domes have flawless and brightly colored tiling. The other side of the mausoleum is surrounded by thick walls. Around the mausoleum there is an archaeological site where you can visit several smaller buildings.

While the exterior of the mausoleum is detailed and colourful, the interior is very plain, simple and white. There are lots of rooms which contain various valuable objects. Photography is not allowed inside but I remember that it was so packed full of people that I just walked with the flow from room to room.

It is interesting that according to this website’s statistics this is one of the least visited World Heritage Sites in Asia. The mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is must see if you are travelling in Southern Kazakhstan. It is also within reach from the capitals of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. You can compare its grandeur and beauty only to the same era monuments in Samarkand.