The Tomb of Ahmed Yasawi, Turkestan, Kazakhstan

THE TOMB OF AHMED YASAWI (Turkestan, Kazakhstan)

Sufi saint, poet, and mystic Khawaja Ahmed Yasawi died in Turkestan in 1166. Over 220 years later, in 1389, the Turco-Mongol conqueror Timur (sometimes called Tamerlane) replaced his modest 12th-century mausoleum with a magnificent structure in the Timurid style, featuring vault-and-dome and glazed tiles. It remains uncompleted since the death of Timur in 1405, but continues to draw pilgrims.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Silk Roads: Chang'an-Tianshan - China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan

SILK ROAD: CHANG'AN-TIANSHAN (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan)

The "Silk Road" was actually a network of roads and sea-routes that linked SE Asia and China to (ultimately) Europe from c. 200 BCE to 1450 CE. This "site" is the 3,000 miles between China's capital, Chang'an (Xi'an) and Central Asia. It links capital cities and palaces of various empires as well as trading settlements, Buddhist cave temples, beacon towers, and more.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)