Kayalyk

Hundreds of medieval towns have been found in Kazakhstan but only a few have been extensively studied. The mane medieval towns actually under study is the old town of Kayalyk. It is located  on the piedmont of the Dzhungarian mountains 600km Northeast of Almaty (Semirechie) a few kilometers from the Lepsi river. It was a thriving town during the Turkic Karluk period from the 9-th to the end 13-th centuries when it was  suddenly abandoned. During the Karakhaned and Karakitai hegemony in  Central Asia (960 -1209), Kayalyk was the political and economic center of the Turkik Karluk and was one of the northernmost merchant cities of Central Asia. Merchants converging here from west, east and north, Transoxiana, China and Xinjiang, influenced the town's architecture: Nestorian churches, Higher lamaist temples and Muslim mosques. Van Rubroeck, Franciscan emissary of the Vatican to the Mongol court, who stayed  there in 1253, recorded the town.

Kayalyk is large (120 ha), flat   square walled town (tortkul). Survey and excavation which began three years ago exposed the foundation of same building and walls. Excavations have already began on a medieval Buddhist Lamaist temple, a rich mansion with polychrome ceramics and glassware of Middle Eastern origin, and a bathhouse dated to the early Mongol period. During the excavation very mach interesting findings was founded, witch  in Kazakh National Museum of Archaeology. Further  excavation of these sites will continue this season, together with an extensive survey of the entire town and surrounding area (were remains of villages and irrigation works  had been found).

Professor  Karl Baipakov, who is director of the Institute of archaeology of Kazakhstan and a world renowned specialist on the medieval urbanization along Silk Route, will supervise the excavation and survey. Ancient Kayalyk is situated   in the eastern part of very green and pleasant oasis. Volunteers will stay in country house at a colorize Kazakh-Russian village (Kayalyk - Antonovka). The education program includes excavation, lectures, survey tours, excursion. Volunteers should bring a sleeping bag, sweater, rain clothes, boots. Further tours (in the alpine forest of Lepsy and or all around Semirechie) can be organized at  the end of the fieldwork.