Sauran

Sauran lies on the steppe about 45 km north-west of Turkestan, close to the highway to Kyzylorda. Mentioned by Arab and Persian geographers from the 10th century, it was a fortified town on the routes between the Syr Darya oases and the steppe, and in the 14th and 15th centuries it served as a capital of the White Horde, the eastern wing of the Golden Horde, and then of the early Uzbek and Kazakh khans. Travellers praised its gardens, its madrasahs and its minaret. It was abandoned in the 18th century as the water supply failed and the region suffered from wars.

What you see

The striking thing is the wall. An oval rampart of rammed earth, about 2 km around and still several metres high in places, encloses the town site, with the remains of towers and two gateways. Inside, excavations have uncovered the main square and the foundations of a large madrasah and a Friday mosque, among the buildings described by the 16th-century writer Zayn ad-Din Vasifi. Around the town, lines of mounds mark kariz, underground water channels that brought water from the foothills of the Karatau, an engineering system well known from Iran but rare this far north.

How to experience it

Walk along the top of the wall for the clearest view of the city plan and the flat steppe all around, and then into the centre to see the excavated foundations. There is no shade and the wind can be strong. Sauran combines easily with a morning or evening in Turkestan, and the late-afternoon light gives the earthen walls their best colour.