Tash Rabat Caravanserai

Tash Rabat ('stone inn') stands alone in a narrow side valley of the At-Bashy range in the Naryn region, a few hours' drive south of Naryn town and not far from the Torugart pass into China. It is built of rough stone set in mortar, half sunk into the hillside, so that from a distance it almost disappears into the slope. For centuries traders crossing between the Fergana valley, the Chui valley and Kashgar sheltered here from the cold and the wind.

History

Most sources date the present building to the 15th century, when the Silk Road routes through the Tian Shan were still busy. Some scholars have proposed that it began earlier, perhaps around the 10th century, as a Christian (Nestorian) or Buddhist monastery, which would explain its unusual plan for a caravanserai; the evidence is debated and the question remains open. Soviet restorers repaired the structure in the 1980s.

The building

You enter through a single portal into a central hall roofed with a dome, lit from an opening above. Around it run corridors and around thirty small rooms of different sizes: sleeping cells, storerooms, perhaps a prayer room, and a pit said, in local tradition, to have served as a prison or well. Inside it is dim and cool even in midsummer, and with a torch you can imagine the smoke, animals and voices of a winter caravan.

Around Tash Rabat

Summer yurt camps by the stream below the caravanserai make an atmospheric overnight stop with horse riding up the valley. Experienced riders and hikers can climb over a pass of about 4,000 metres to look down on Chatyr-Kul lake on the Chinese border; this area requires a border-zone permit arranged in advance. Tash Rabat combines well with Song-Kul and Naryn, or as the last Kyrgyz stop before the Torugart crossing to Kashgar.

Practical notes

The access road from the main Naryn–Torugart highway is gravel but generally passable in summer. The site is at high altitude: walk slowly, bring warm clothing and expect cold nights. The caravanserai has a caretaker who collects a small fee.