Arystan Bab Mausoleum
Pilgrimage mausoleum near Otrar, traditionally visited before the shrine at Turkistan.
Arystan Bab is remembered as the spiritual teacher of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, and tradition holds that he passed to the young Yasawi an amanat, a trust, that had come down from the Prophet. A tomb was raised over his twelfth-century grave in the fourteenth century, close to the ruined city of Otrar. Earthquakes brought it down more than once; the building seen today was completed in 1909, in burnt brick laid with alabaster mortar, keeping only the carved wooden columns of an earlier rebuilding.
The front is about thirty metres wide, with a tall central arch between two minarets and two domes behind. Inside, the burial chamber holds the graves of Arystan Bab and three of his followers, and the complex also contains a mosque, a small museum and rooms for pilgrims. Custom in the region holds that a visit to Turkistan should begin here, and many travellers still stop at Arystan Bab before going on to the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi.
Highlights
- Tall entrance arch flanked by two minarets and two domes
- Carved wooden columns kept from an earlier building
- Tomb chamber of Arystan Bab and three of his followers
- Traditionally the first stop on the pilgrimage to Turkistan
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