Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi

"UNESCO World Heritage The Mazar (Mausoleum) of Yasawi is Kazakhstan's most significant architectural masterpiece. Its massive blue. tiled dome floats above a small complex of buildings that together are the most complete example of the architecture of the medieval Timund Emoire. Built between 1389 and 1405 during the reign of Tamerlane in the ancient town of Yasi (modern Turkestan), it remains unfinished. The Mausoleum was commissioned by Tamerlane to enhance the grave of Khoia Ahmed Yasawi. A famed Sufi mystic. Yasawi was born in 1103, lived for most of his life in the nearby city of Turkestan, and died around 1166. Yasawi had a gift for translating his profound spiritual message through the medium of poetry; apparently simple words conveyed a deep set of meaning to the attuned listener. Significantly he wrote in the local Turkic dialects and not in Classical Arabic, so that all people could understand his words. Yasawi founded an order of Sufi mystics- -the Yasauia-who conveyed his gifts across the medieval Islamic world. The site of his tomb became a significant place of pilgrimage; it was said that three journeys to the Mausoleum equaled one Haji to Mecca: It was Yasawi's reputation that led Tamerlane to pull down an earlier simple tomb and replace it with the magnificent and unfinished monument that we see today. The main body of the complex supports the largest dome in Central Asia, covered in exquisite green and colden tiles. The walls are covered in a fabulously complex mixture of heavily stylized text and elegant geometric patterns. The main facade was unfinished by the time of Tamerlane's death and the original supporting scaffolding still protrudes from the walls Fortunately. later dynasties had neither the resources nor the interest in completing Tamerlane's vision, and it remains a shining example of the architectural legacy of Islamic Central Asia."