Turkestan was the capital of the Kazakh khanate from the 16th to the 18th century. The Kazakh khans were well aware of the city's geopolitical and spiritual significance in terms of uniting the nomadic tribes into the fabric of the new state.

After the whole of the central Syr Darya territory had been incorporated into the Kazakh khanate, the city of Yassi-Turkestan - by now the biggest commercial and handicraft center - became the residence of the Kazakh khans. It was not chosen as the political center of the Kazakh khanate by chance. The city was the second Mecca for Central Asian Muslims and was located at a point where nomadic and settled cultures overlapped; it was also at a crossroads of trade routes and was surrounded by heavily fortified walls.
This is the destination of our Discovery ExpeditionsTour team. They will describe their route on the pages of Discovery Central Asia, which will hopefully serve as a guide or manual to those wishing to know more about the as yet undiscovered and secretive city of Turkestan. The tour will start in Tashkent, cross the borders of Uzbekistan into Kazakhstan, and follow the route below.

Here is a brief history of the places the team will visit:

The khanaka of Khodja Akhmed Yasavi (late 14th century) is a striking example of architecture of the Timurid period, consolidating within its walls different functional premises: djamaatkhana (for meetings), gurkhana (burial-vault), large and small aksaray, kitapkhona (library), askhona (dining room), kudukhana (well), and numerous khudjra (living quarters of dervishes). Due to this wide variety of functions it is hard for experts to agree on a term for the complex, so it is known by different names: mausoleum, mosque, memorial complex, khanaka. Each name characterizes only one function of this grandiose complex and does not reflect all the services and rituals it provided. The khanaka was built on the orders of Emir Timur (Tamerlane) in 1399 on the burial place of Khodji Akhmed Yasavi who died in the 12th century. The official history of Timur, The Book of Victories (Zafarnama), connects the laying of the foundation stone with the events of late 1397 when Timur solemnly made ziarat (worship) at Akhmed Yasavi's grave. According to The Book of Victories Timur stayed in the city of Yasi and gave an order to build a grandiose building worthy of the memory of Khodji Akhmed Yasavi on the outskirts of his domain. The building should glorify Islam, promote its further expansion, and facilitate ruling over vast lands. Timur himself determined the basic dimensions of the building, particularly that the diameter of the big cupola should be 30 gyaz (one gyaz equals 60.6сm). Timur's decree also included recommendations on some external and internal decorative details of the building. The main construction in the architectural composition of the building is Akhmed Yasavi's burial-vault located in the depth of the building. Over the entrance to the burial-vault the inscription reads, "It was ordered to build this sacred burial-vault [raudat translates verbatim as 'the garden of sheriffs']... by Emir Timur Gurgan...". The term raudat is accepted in translations as 'burial-vault', although literally in Arabic it means 'garden', which when referring to a burial-vault should mean 'heavenly garden'. Thus the burial-vault intended for the spiritual habitation of Akhmed Yasavi who is buried here is referred to as a heavenly garden. Accordingly the decoration of this building was done in the most exquisite style. In the middle of the cruciform hall is the sheikh's headstone: a podium on three steps faced with serpentine tiles (ophite). The corner guldasti and the cornice of the headstone are decorated with carving in the form of plaits and stalactites. There are no inscriptions on the headstone. The vault is covered with a double cupola, the internal one 17m high and the external one about 28m. At the base of the walls on the stone-carved plinth is a panel made of hexagonal green tiles painted with gold. In the northwestern corner of the building is a mosque on whose drum sits a high cupola cut by the light. The mosque is the only building of the monument where fragments of wall-paintings have been preserved, blue in colour and representing geometrical and plant ornaments placed in belts, frames, and cartouches.  A unique monument of mosaic art is the mosque's mikhrab made in the technique of composed glazed mosaic. Linking all the buildings is the djamaatkhana, at the front of the complex; square in design with all sides equalling 18.2m and covered with the largest preserved spheroconical cupola with a single covering in Central Asia . Here meetings and group devotions (zikra) of dervishes occurred. In the center of the hall there is a ritual kazan or cauldron (hence the easier alternative name for the hall: kazanlik), cast, according to legend, from seven alloyed metals. The kazan is a symbol of unity and hospitality. It is 2.2m in diameter, and weighs two tons. The extra large dimensions of the kazan are dictated by the ancient beliefs of the Turkic tribes; the edge of the kazan must be at the height of the man's mouth who approaches it. The surface of the kazan is decorated by three belts of relief inscriptions against a background of vegetative ornament. The highest one says that this kazan for water is a gift of Timur to the building erected in commemoration of Khodja Akhmed Yasavi. In the middle one there are words, "Be blessed", the year of its creation - 1399 - and the name of the craftsman: Abdulgaziz ibn Sharafutdin from Tebriz. The lowest one says, "The Kingdom of Heaven to Allah". The handles of the cauldron resemble lotus flowers and alternate with circular ledges. Our expedition intends to investigate everything mentioned above and to discover new facts and historical details about Turkestan.