User:Aziza2001/The mausoleum of Karakhan

The mausoleum of Karakhan (the mausoleum of Aulie-ata) (Kaz. Қарахан кесенесі) was built over the grave of one of the representatives of the Karakhanid dynasty. The architectural monument of the 11th century is located in the Kazakhstan city of Taraz in a park at the intersection of Tole Bi and Bayzak Batyr streets.

History
It is believed that the mausoleum was built over the grave of one of the representatives of the Karakhanid dynasty - Shah-Mahmud Buhr Karakhan. The mausoleum has not survived to its present day in its original form, in 1906 it was rebuilt and, while preserving the construction principle, lost the original architectural and decorative furniture. Inside the mausoleum preserved gravestone. The construction was financed by the ishan of Tashkent, Said Bakhanov.

For the first time the mausoleum was studied in detail by Boris Denik and described by him in the book “The Architectural Ornament of Central Asia”. In 1982, the mausoleum of Karakhan was included in the list of historical and cultural monuments of the Kazakh SSR of republican significance and taken under state protection. In the Soviet period, an anti-religious museum was placed in the mausoleum.

In 2002, the mausoleum was restored to the 2000th anniversary of the city of Taraz.

Architecture
It is a square in the plan portal-dome structure. It consists of a central hall and three small corner rooms (hujrov), the fourth corner of the mausoleum is occupied by stairs leading to the roof of the building

The front facade of the mausoleum is facing south, framed by minarets at the edges. The entrance is in the depth of the arch, on both sides of which there are three niches: rectangular, square and lancet. Above the entrance to the mausoleum there is an inscription in Arabic “There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” Outside, the walls of the mausoleum are made of modern bricks, and from the inside, the dome and arched niches ending the window apertures are made of bricks of Karahanid time.

The archaeologist Taisiya Senigov, based on a photograph of the 1850s, describes the original appearance of the facade of the mausoleum. The mausoleum had originally a centric composition and was covered by a dome. The entrance to the early mausoleum was under a flat arched arch, which is marked with a blade-like masonry and contoured with a brick laid flat. The arch rested on 3/4 of the column lined with twin bricks. Similarly, a deep entrance was made, located behind the arched niche. The portal part was contoured with brick with slightly protruding U-shaped arches. The facade of the mausoleum, judging by the figure bricks found in the excavations (more than 30 varieties), was richly decorated.