Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, Mausoleum in Turkestan, Kazakhstan
The Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is a rectangular brick building measuring 46.5 by 65.5 metres, with a tall recessed portal on the right, a cylindrical corner tower and a massive pier, both with projecting wooden poles. A long tiled wall leads to two ribbed turquoise domes on tiled drums; the main dome is 22 metres in diameter and 44 metres high. Inside, over 35 rooms surround a central hall, and the tomb chamber holds a green jade gravestone.
Timur ordered construction in 1396 to raise this tomb above the older resting place of the twelfth-century poet. Work continued for several decades and shaped a structure that influenced later Central Asian architecture.
Pilgrims still come to the tomb of the Sufi poet Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, who died in 1166. They read the Quran at the entrance to the burial chamber rather than entering it. The well room's water was considered sacred and was used to fill the great cauldron on Muslim holidays.
Walking through accessible corridors allows views into interior rooms with wall decorations and calligraphy. The central space holds a large bronze cauldron that served as water vessel and can now be observed by visitors.
The western mosque wall displays a mosaic mihrab that replicates the Kaaba appearance. This prayer niche served believers who could not travel to Mecca as a symbolic reference point.
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