Information
- Location
- Түркістан облысы, Turkistan city
- Period
- 1001 – 1200
- Category
- Historical and cultural monuments of republican significance
- Type
- Architectural monument, Urban planning
- Kind
- Monuments of urban planning and architecture
Sources
- Album of historical and cultural objects and places of general pilgrimage of Kazakhstan. - Astana: KazSRIC, 2018. - 496 pages.
Description
The monument is located on the territory of the Turkestan necropolis 22 m northwest of the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi. According to experts, the word “chillakhana” comes from the Persian “chehel”, which means “forty”, and the word “khana” – parking. Therefore, “chillakhana” is a house in which people live for forty days. According to the testament of the Prophet Muhammad, “if someone will pray in the name of Allah with sincere intentions for forty days and nights, Allah will pour a spring of wisdom to the bottom of his heart. Chillakhana was a room for individual, solitary prayer. Legends say that this structure corresponds to the crypt, into which, allegedly by order of Emir Timur, the remains from the graves of the cemetery, disturbed during the construction of the khanaka of Ahmed Yassawi, were transferred.
The monument is a quadrangular, semi-earthen structure. In 1980, the conservation and partial restoration of the monument was carried out.
Shildehana is an interesting architectural object and is very popular place for numerous pilgrims and tourists.