oblandy Batyr, memorial and tourist complex

Memorial and tourist complex built on the burial site of Koblandy Batyr in the village of Zhirenkopa (Kobda district, Aktobe region).

According to legend, Koblandy Batyr (15th century) is an outstanding personality immortalized in the epic poetry of Kazakhs. According to historical sources, he lived approximately in the 15th century. In the folk memory of the Kazakh, Bashkir, Karakalpak and other Turkic peoples 29 variants of the poem "Koblandy Batyr" have survived. According to these data it is established that Koblandy Batyr participated in political events of the Nogai Horde period, in the campaign to Kazan. Kobylandy Batyr fought with Alshagyr, the descendant of Yedige Bi in the fourth knee. Batyr was lost from a hand of son Alshagyr Orak Batyr.

For the first time we record data on the burial place of Koblandy Batyr with V.V. Carlson (1906). I.Kastagner (1910) notes about the location of the monument to the Batyr in 40 km from the Iletskaya defense (modern town of Sol-Iletsk, Russia). During the Soviet period Zhirenkopa settlement was formed on this place. The local population was aware of the location of the monument and noted the preservation of the remains of the mausoleum up to 1 m high up to the middle of the XX century.In 1969, the bone remains were removed from the mausoleum site by N. Shayakhmetov and S.Balmukhanov, but the anthropological research was not completed logically. The works were continued only in 2005 by Kazakh anthropologists O.Ismagulov and A.Ismagulova. As a result of additional archaeological research (Zh. Smayilov and O. Oshanov) the remains of the medieval mausoleum with the buried one were cleared. The reconstruction of the skull of a Batyr was carried out in the laboratory of anthropological reconstruction of the N.N.Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Anthropology and Ethnology (Moscow) according to the method developed by M.M.Gerasimov (T.Balueva, V.Veselovskaya).

In 2007, at the initiative of the regional akim E.N. The Sagindykov Memorial Complex was erected at the burial place of the Koblandy Batyr, the author of hich is the architect B. Ibraev.

The basis of the complex is a mausoleum in the form of a helmet height of 17 m, width of 12 m, built of red burnt brick, the dome is covered with iron sheet and painted in gold. Around the mausoleum there are 29 glass steles in the form of arrow-shaped menhirs. Nearby there is a museum. The building is planned in such a way that the view from above resembles the bowstring and arrow of a legendary batyr. On the territory of the complex, on the east side of the mausoleum, there is a stone block called "sharpening stone" of the batyr ("Kairaktas"), on which, according to the legend, Koblandy sharpened his sword before the campaign.

Today the complex is one of the main tourist facilities on the "Western Europe - Western China" highway.