Balandy 2, the temple structure

It is located 260 km south-west of Kyzylorda, 80 km south-south-west of Zhana kala village. The monument dates back to the second half of the I millennium BC, the time when the Aral Sea region was under the influence of the West Asian states. The temple structure was discovered during the work of the Khorezm Archaeological and Ethnographic Expedition in 1957-1960. It was re-examined in 2005 by the Chirikrabat Archaeological Expedition of A.Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology under the leadership of Zh. Kurmankulov. In the architecture of Central Asia in the ancient period, the Balandy-2 mausoleum is the first structure with a dome, it is a cult building - a communal temple that served the inhabitants of the surrounding agricultural oases. The fact that the dome of the mausoleum of ancient times was covered by the dome is very important for the study of the history and culture of the population of the region. Balandy 2 is a cult and burial structure of good preservation, with an arch entrance and a central round room. S.P. Tolstov suggested that the Mausoleum of Balandy 2 could be a sanctuary associated with a funeral cult. The analysis of the design of the mausoleum, especially its false dome, allowed to come to the conclusion that this form imitates the forms of the ancient portable dwelling of steppes and originated here, in the center of the steppe world.

Taking into account that the dome of Balandy 2 does not repeat the design features of the West Asian domes, which already have a developed scheme of construction, it can be assumed that Balandy 2 is one of the oldest dome structures in Kazakhstan. In this regard, I would like to note that the development of monumental and temple architecture of the Aral Sea region was uneven. Thus, in neighboring Khorezm at this time the traditions of statehood are developing, associated with the formation of a specific for the steppe zone ideological foundation. It is a system of cults, which is associated with a special version of Central Asian Zoroastrianism. This has affected the development of monumental temple architecture.

By this time, the construction of cult buildings in Khorezm - KoiKrylgan-Kala, Kalaly-Gyr-2, Elharas and Gyaur-3 - ascended. These religious centers, according to researchers, are connected with the acquisition of independence from Achaemenid Persia, with the formation of institutions of royal power in Khorezm, where the temples played a unifying role as residents of a certain district (temple community). The study of such cult constructions and temple complexes allows reconstructing some of the main myths of the ancient population of the region and rituals related to the operation of the cult complex.

The temples of Khorezm were circular in nature, as were the Balandy 2 temples. The difference between the Temple of Balandy is that this type of dome structure continued to exist and develop in Kazakhstan and beyond. In the synthesis of the square and circle used in the construction of religious sites, researchers see, on the basis of ancient religious beliefs, "a cosmological scheme of peace, in which the square symbolized the four sides of the world and the circle was a symbol of the sky", "the square and circle combined the cosmological and theological-historical aspects of human perception of the world around them". These contrasting geometric forms may indicate different semantic pairs, such as the sky and earth, space and chaos, up to the division of mankind into women and men. Moreover, Indo-Iranian literature has preserved the most ancient prescriptions requiring that the sacrificial hearth of a man be square and women be round, which ultimately reflects the idea of uniting the identification of man and woman, the idea of universal fertility and, as a consequence, abundance. The idea of the round balandy 2 in terms of construction is most often related to the cult of fire and fertility, based on the Zoroastrian religious precepts and customs of Central Asian nomads. This does not give us the right to link their development only with a certain region of Central Asia, but allows us to consider them as a common Indo-Iranian heritage of super-ethnos.

Balandy 2 is a central, round in terms of construction with a diameter of about 16 m. Its walls rise above the current level of takyrs by 4-5 m. Externally, the monument is a low cylinder, treated with 25 triangular blades. Each plane enclosed between the adjacent blades has two clearly decorative trapezoidal depressions in the upper part. The only entrance to the building faces south and is decorated in the form of an emerging portal. The central part of the building is occupied by a round hall covered with a dome. At a distance of 2.3 m from the wall of the hall passes around the second wall. The corridor formed by them is divided by radial walls into seven rooms, which are not equal in size, and which are covered by partially preserved vaults. These circular rooms were connected to each other by means of passageways. The entrance hall (3.25 x 2.75 m) is connected by two arched openings with the adjacent rooms of the ring, the third one leads to the central hall. All doorways have approximately equal width and heights. All walls, as well as the surface of the arches, are covered with a thick, dense layer of clay covering with a large amount of coarse organic matter (straw, cane). In the northeast corner of the lobby there are remnants of white alabaster, which it was probably once lined with.

On the most part of the square there is a vault made of mud brick. The surface of the vault, as well as the surface of the walls, is covered with dense clay covering with a large admixture of saman. The construction of the vaults and arches of Balandy 2 is also of great interest. The curve of the vaults is a cross between the parabolic and the advanced curve. The builders of Balandy 2 used two types of raw bricks for the masonry of the vaults: 1) trapezoidal, typical for the vaults of ancient Khorezm, 2) wedged. Wedged bricks were used to make a sharp transition of the curve of the vault from the vertical to the horizontal direction. In the area of these bricks, the curve of the vault breaks sharply, and the resulting fracture is corrected by building up a fairly thick layer of sun-dried coating.

One of the peculiarities of Balandy-2 vault masonry is that half of its height is laid out by letting the upper row over the lower row (false vault), and then - by wedged and trapezoidal bricks, which translate the parabolic beginning of the vault into a box curve. The arches of the doorways have curves approaching in line with the semi-circular ones. The dressing of rows goes on 0,5 bricks, and the masonry does not differ accuracy. Subsequent thick sun-dried covering hides constructive errors. Ceramics are used for both arches and vaults.

Taking into account that the dome of Balandy-2 does not repeat the design features of the West Asian domes, which already have developed schemes of construction, as well as the fact that Balandy-2 is one of the oldest dome structures (IV-II centuries BC), it follows that the ancient tribes of the lower reaches of the Syr Darya in the development of the design of the dome went their own way. Thus, Balandy-2 is one of the oldest dome temple buildings in Kazakhstan, which is continued in the tradition of dome religious buildings in Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

Object of tourism.