Konye-Urgench
Köneürgenç | |
Khwarezm | |
Site notes | |
---|---|
Condition | Ruined |
Asia and Australasia |
Konye-Urgench (
Overview
Located on the south side of the Amu Darya River, Old Ürgenç was situated on one of the most important medieval paths: the Silk Road, the crossroad of western and eastern civilisations. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in Turkmenistan, lying within a vast zone of protected landscape and containing a large number of well-preserved monuments, dating from the 11th to the 16th centuries. They comprise mosques, the gates of a caravanserai, fortresses, mausoleums and a minaret, and the influence of their architectural style and craftsmanship reached Iran, Afghanistan and the later architecture of the Mughal Empire of 16th-century India.
Etymology
Atanyyazow explains, "In the works of Chinese historians, the name Yue-Gyan, which occurs in Georgian forms in the works of Arab scholars of the 10th century,...was used in the form of Gurganj, a native of Khorezm....and -j, according to Yakut, mean[s] just like the word... abat, i.e., "village" and "city"...Given the ancient name of the word Gurgen..., then the toponym of Gurganj...has the meaning of "Gurgen city", "Gurgen city of the people". Later, the name Gurganj began to be used in the form of Urgench."[2] To what Gurgen or Gurgan refer, however, remains unexplained.
History and development
The exact dates when Kunya-Urgench was founded remain uncertain, but archaeological finds at the
According to an 1893 writer
In 1221,
In 1373,
The area was later inhabited by the
The new town of Urgench was developed to the southeast, in present-day Uzbekistan. Some of the first archeological research on the old city site was conducted by Alexander Yakubovsky in 1929.[6]
Archaeological remains
The urban layout of Kunya Urgench has been lost and only certain monuments remain standing to this day. These are authentic and rich examples of fine architecture and building traditions existing for centuries. The level of conservation varies amongst the buildings, and the most substantial restoration work has been carried out in the past thirty years, during the soviet era, using traditional methods and materials.
Kutlug-Timur Minaret
The Kutlug Timur minaret is perhaps the most striking structure here. It dates to the 11th and 12th centuries, and measures 60 meters in height, making it the highest monument in the park. Its diameter is 12 meters at its base, and 2 at the top.
On the basis of its decorative brickwork, including Kufic inscriptions, the minaret is thought to be an earlier construction, only restored by Kutlug-Timur around 1330.[7]
Turabek-Khanum Mausoleum
Named after Turabek-Khanum, the wife of Kutlug-Timur (ruled between 1321 and 1336), this structure is located at the northern part of ancient Gurgench. It is remarkable for its elegant design and stunning tile decoration, and it is a highly sophisticated work of architecture, both in its conceptualisation of spaces and in its engineering. Both are fully utilised in a conscious way to achieve a visual, aesthetic and spiritual effect.
The original building was composed of two chambers: a large domed hall and a smaller one behind it. The large chamber is twelve-sided on the exterior and hexagonal on the interior, being preceded by an entrance portal and a vestibule.
One of the most impressive architectural features of the mausoleum is the circular dome covering the main hall, whose surface is covered in colourful mosaic which forms intricate ornamental patterns consisting of flowers and stars, creating a visual metaphor for the heavens. No comparable contemporary parallels can be found at Urgench, as some of the architectural features, such as the decorations mentioned above, do not appear in other monuments built during the lifetime of Turabek-Khanum, around 1330. Thus, it is difficult to date the building so early. These features do, however, appear in Central Asia later, during the reign of Timur, a warlord of Turco-Mongol descent. New technologies, such as mosaic faience, show up in Timur's earliest buildings, such as the Aq Saray palace in Shahrisabz, in Uzbekistan, which was begun in 1379 but was still unfinished in 1404.[7]
Tekesh Mausoleum
This structure is the presumed Tomb of Sultan Ala al-Din Tekish, the founder of the Khwarazmian Empire and its ruler between 1172-1200. It has been identified as a mausoleum due to the tradition that each ancient Central Asian building is dedicated to a historical or mythical personage.
The building is made of bricks and consists of a square hall with walls which are 11,45 meters high, a massive round drum and a conical roof with an inner dome hidden under it. The dome is connected to the square walls it rests upon by an octagonal belt. The structure between the dome and the octagon is decorated with 16 shallow niches. Their form is not lancet-like as those commonly found in the Islamic architecture of Central Asia, but rather semicircular. This is a motif that can be found in the marble 8th-century mihrab at the Baghdad Museum, and has seldom been used in Central Asia: another comparable case that can be found in Turkmenistan is that of the mihrab of Muhammad Ibn Zayd's 11th-century mosque, from Merv. However, the two are located too far away to be considered prototypes.
The external conical roof is built of horizontal layers using the technique of a
One of the special features of the building's architecture is its façade. It presents a high portal niche with the main archway, which has now lost its original form. The lancet arch of the portal is filled by a complicated system of stalactite -like forms, which is a decorative motif made of terracotta and fixed on wooden sticks within the brickwork.
Research concerning this structure has given rise to speculations that the Mausoleum of Tekesh might have stood at the centre of some large construction that consisted of a multitude of buildings. Thus, certain scholars would argue that the building served a different purpose from that of a mausoleum, such as, for example, a House of Government or a Palace of the Great Khwarzm-shahs.[8]
Kyrkmolla
Kyrkmolla is a 12-meter-high (39 ft) mound which used to constitute a fortress. It is located in the north-eastern outskirts of Gurgench. It is particularly significant as the earliest ceramics discovered at the site, dating back to the 5th century BC, were located here. It is protected by a thick mud-brick wall which dates back to the 10th to 14th centuries, and has been partially rebuilt after archaeological excavations.
Najm-ad-Din al-Kubra Mausoleum, Sultan Ali Mausoleum and Piryar Vali Mausoleum Complex
This complex is situated in the centre of the new town of Kunya-Urgench, within a Muslim cemetery. The Najm-ad-Din al-Kubra Mausoleum was erected in the first half of the 14th century, and derives its name from the philosopher, painter, physician, chess master and general Najm al-Din Kubra, the founder of the Kubrawiya Sufi order. This is one of the structures which was rebuilt during the Khorezm era of prosperity, and also after the Mongol invasion.
The Mausoleum of Sultan Ali, who ruled in the 16th century, is located across. It is a hexagonal monument, with a dome measuring 9.5 meters in diameter.
The Mausoleum of Piryar Vali, a contemporary of Najm al-Din al-Kubra, is located to the west of the latter's mausoleum, and was built in the 13th and 14th centuries. It is 6.5 meters high and measures 7.5 meters in length.
Il Arslan Mausoleum
Il Arslan is a magnificent piece of architecture, also known among the people as the Mausoleum of Kho-Rezmshah II Arslan, who ruled from 1156 to 1172. The mausoleum, dating to the 12th century, is the oldest standing monument in Gurgench.
The building has a cuboidal structure of baked brick similar to the earliest existing Islamic mausoleum in Central Asia, the early 10th-century mausoleum of the
According to some of the latest scientific discoveries, one of the structure's functions, at a certain point, was that of storing water.
Ibn Khajib Complex
This monument is dedicated to Ibn Khajib, one of Najm-ad-Din al-Kubra's talented disciples. It is located in the western part of ancient Urgench and it consists of a complex of monuments, all constructed in different periods of time, from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
Ak-Kala
Ak-Kala is a fortress located southwest of the ruins of medieval Urgench. Its walls, whose height ranges from 6 to 8 meters, and which measure approximately 2 meters at the top, stretch on more than a kilometre. They were built with sun dried mud-bricks and their corners are decorated with semi-circular towers, whilst the inner side of the fortress wall is sustained by buttresses.
Khorezm-Bag
This is a quadrangular fortress, erected by Khan Muhammed Emin, measuring 400 by 500 meters, and was built in the mid-19th century in the south-western outskirts of Kunya-Urgench. It is surrounded by a high defensive wall which has been severely eroded by the passing of time.[6]
Kunya Urgench Museum (Dash Mosque)
The museum is located in the brick structure the Dash Mosque, a former
The museum displays focus on the history of the site, on traditional arts and crafts of the region, on the building tradition of Urgench, etc. The largest room is dedicated to the history and treasures of the old city, including a comprehensive miniature model of Gurgench and a variety of artefacts such as ceramic bowls, glazed tiles, children's toys, or Arabic texts. Another important room centres around the Dash Mosque and the history of its construction and use. Around the courtyard, behind the main building, the remaining smaller rooms, formerly the bedrooms of the students at the madrasa, have been converted into 19 displays explaining the traditional handicrafts of the region such as carpet making, pottery, Yurt construction, etc.[6]
Building tradition
Kunya Urgench has been, for a long period of time, a prolific school of construction masters. The knowledge and skills of this school have spread, throughout the centuries, amongst the Muslim world, and can be recognised in the structures and decorations of many buildings from the
were erected by builders and architects employed from Kunya Urgench in the 14th century.The ingenuity and skill of the local craftsmen and architects can be seen in the exceptional construction details, such as structure, form or ornamentation, which have been perfected throughout time. Furthermore, traditional building techniques have survived to this day: for example, the
Geography
Climate
Kunya Urgench has a cold desert climate (BWk in the Köppen climate classification), with long and hot summers. Winters are relatively short, but quite cold. Precipitation is scarce throughout the year, with an average of 109 mm (4.36 in).
Climate data for Kunya-Urgench | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 0.2 (32.4) |
2.7 (36.9) |
10.4 (50.7) |
20.7 (69.3) |
28.5 (83.3) |
33.4 (92.1) |
35.2 (95.4) |
32.6 (90.7) |
26.9 (80.4) |
17.9 (64.2) |
10.1 (50.2) |
3.1 (37.6) |
18.5 (65.3) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | −4.0 (24.8) |
−2.3 (27.9) |
4.8 (40.6) |
14.1 (57.4) |
21.3 (70.3) |
25.9 (78.6) |
27.9 (82.2) |
25.3 (77.5) |
19.3 (66.7) |
11.1 (52.0) |
5.0 (41.0) |
0.1 (32.2) |
12.4 (54.3) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | −8.0 (17.6) |
−7.1 (19.2) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
7.7 (45.9) |
14.2 (57.6) |
18.4 (65.1) |
20.7 (69.3) |
18.0 (64.4) |
11.7 (53.1) |
4.4 (39.9) |
0.0 (32.0) |
−2.8 (27.0) |
6.4 (43.5) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 9 (0.4) |
8 (0.3) |
17 (0.7) |
19 (0.7) |
13 (0.5) |
4 (0.2) |
3 (0.1) |
2 (0.1) |
3 (0.1) |
9 (0.4) |
10 (0.4) |
12 (0.5) |
109 (4.4) |
Source: Climate-data.org[10] |
See also
References
- ^ a b "Kunya-Urgench". UNESCO World Heritage Center. UNESCO. Retrieved 19 February 2011.
- ^ Atanyýazow, Soltanşa (1980). Түркменистаның Географик Атларының Дүшүндиришли Сөзлүги [Explanatory Dictionary of Geographic Names in Turkmenistan]. Ashgabat: Ылым. pp. 189–190.
- ^ Habib Borjian, "KĀṮ", www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kat-city
- ^ Gloukhovsky, Alexandr Ivanovitch, The Passage of the Water of the Amu-Darya by its Old Bed into the Caspian Sea, St Petersburgh, 1893, pages 8,10,15,28.
- ^ Gibb, H.A.R. trans. and ed. (1971). The Travels of Ibn Baṭṭūṭa, A.D. 1325–1354 (Volume 3). London: Hakluyt Society. p. 541.
{{cite book}}
:|first=
has generic name (help) - ^ a b c d Government of Turkmenistan, January 2004. Nomination of the Ancient Town of Kunya-Urgench for the Inclusion on the World Heritage List (https://whc.unesco.org/uploads/nominations/1199.pdf)
- ^ a b Golombek, L. 2011. 'The Turabeg Khanom Mausoleum in Kunya Urgench: Problems of Attribution, in Muqarnas. An Annual on the Visual Cultures of the Islamic World, Volume 28, 133-156.
- ^ Chmelnizkij, S. 1995 'The Mausoleum of Tekesh in Kunya Urgench', in International Congress of Turkish Art: Art Turc, Turkish Art, Geneve, Fondation Max Van Berchem, 217-221.
- ^ Kuehn, S. 2007. 'Tilework on 12th to 14th century funerary monuments in Urgench (Gurganj)', in Arts of Asia, Volume 37, Number 2, 112-129
- ^ Climate data: Konye Urgench