Tekturmas Mausoleum, Medieval mausoleum in Taraz, Kazakhstan

Tekturmas Mausoleum is a brick burial structure sitting on the southeastern bank of the Talas River, built in a four-sided design with a dome on top. The building shows a simple geometric form that was common for burial monuments across medieval Central Asia.

The mausoleum was built over the grave of Sultan Mahmud Khan (Tekturmas-ata), revered as a saint for spreading Islam in the region; the architect is unknown. Archaeologist Mikhail Masson dated it to the 15th century from a single ornamented terracotta tile, while Kazakh sources place it at the start of the 14th. In 1864 it was damaged when Tsarist troops under Mikhail Chernyaev took Aulie-Ata, and in 1935 it was dismantled to its foundations for bricks.

Locals consider the mausoleum the burial place of the saint (auliye) Sultan-Makhmud Khan, also called Tekturmas-ata, credited with spreading Islam in the region. After the 1935 demolition, residents built a small ziyarat by the grave to keep up the veneration rite. The surrounding necropolis holds Zoroastrian ossuary burials and medieval Christian and Muslim graves.

The site was fully restored in 2002 using historical photographs from the 1880s as a guide, so you see the building in its reconstructed form today. The location near the riverbank makes it easy to approach and walk around the structure to view it from different angles.

Around the mausoleum lies a necropolis with burials from different periods: Zoroastrian ossuaries holding skeletal remains, alongside medieval Christian and Muslim graves. In 1935 the mausoleum was dismantled to its foundations for building bricks, and locals built a small ziyarat next to the saint's grave to continue worship there.