Bopyldyk, necropolis

Located 48 km away from the working village Dossor (Kyzylkoga district, Atyrau region).

The cemetery occupies an elongated oval area of 60×185 m. The Makat-Inder railroad and the field road of the same direction run 160 m north-east of the cemetery. The necropolis is preserved in its original form as an ensemble, and there are no new tombs. There are several reasons for this: the relative isolation of the cemetery by the salt marshes, the isolation of the cemetery from the busy routes connecting the regional centers and large settlements, and a somewhat unusual "cutting off" of the cemetery by the railroad. The development of the cemetery went from south to north. The cemetery has at least 50 visible traditional gravestone structures, including heavily floating embankments and fences. Seven dome mausoleums made of mud bricks, which belong to the so-called Kazakh mausoleums "Uytam" ("mausoleum - house"), are especially notable in the cemetery. In general, they are of the same type: according to the composition-planning solution they belong to the central, one-chamber structures with weakly expressed quadrangular in terms of the skeleton walls - the quadrangle and pyramidal dome - the tent. The entrance part is oriented to the south side. The difference between the mausoleums and each other is their parameters, depending on the overlapping area - from large square chambers to narrow rectangular spaces with a longitudinal axis to the east-west, directly above the gravestones. Floor structures have some features that also depend on the covered area, namely, the use of elbow masonry in the corners of the quaternary (a kind of construction of paired columns), the use of beams, bridges, locking elements of the domes - wooden parts.

The necropolis was surveyed in 2004 by the West Kazakhstan Complex Ethno-Archaeological Expedition (WKCEAE, headed by S.E. Ajigali, head of squad - R.A. Beknazarov). According to legend, as well as according to epigraphy of monuments, the cemetery belongs to the Kazakh family Sherkesh, a sakau unit. The eponymous name of the cemetery is Bai (rich man) Bopyldyk buried here together with his family (wife, two sons).

Bopyldyk Necropolis is one of the original late Kazakh architectural memorial-cult complexes of the North Caspian region, it is a small cemetery of family and clan character. Original raw mausoleums of the cemetery, their architecture and constructive decisions essentially enrich base material for research of memorial-cult constructions of Kazakhs of Atyrau. The carved steles - kulpytases of the complex are a valuable aggregate source on the history of monumental stone-cutting art, as well as memorial Arabic epigraphy of the region.