Information
- Location
- Түркістан облысы, Otyrar District
- Period
- 1 – 1500
- Category
- Historical and cultural monuments of republican significance
- Type
- City
- Kind
- Archaeological sites
Sources
- Album of historical and cultural objects and places of general pilgrimage of Kazakhstan. - Astana: KazSRIC, 2018. - 496 pages.
Description
At the moment, the monument is a two-tiered hillock. The citadel of the settlement is in the form of a hillock 1.35 m high with sides having the following dimensions: north-east – 90 m, north-west – 75 m, south-east – 180 m and south-west – 150 m. Shahristan has dimensions of 165x200x150x195 m. The height of the shahristan hillock is 3-5 m . It is obvious that Shahristan was surrounded by a wall with towers along the perimeter, since the remains of watchtowers in the form of one and a half meter hills were found on the territory.
There is a moat around the settlement. There are two entrances inside the settlement, located in the eastern and south-western walls. From the south and west, rabad adjoins the central ruins, on the territory of which the channel of the main canal was located. The total area of rabad is about 20 hectares.
The settlement was first surveyed in 1900 under the leadership of N.V. Rudnev, the survey was continued by the South Kazakhstan Archaeological expedition under the leadership of A.N. Bernshtam in 1947
Further, in 1975, the South Kazakhstan complex archaeological expedition led by K. A. Akishev and K. M. Baipakov carried out a significant amount of archaeological work.
Today, many experts agree that the settlement of Oxus is identified with the medieval city of Vesij – one of the famous medieval cities of Central Asia and the birthplace of the legendary philosopher and scientist Abu Nasr al Farabi. It is known that in the medieval period the city was also known as Zernuk.