The medieval settlement of Bozok

Geographical coordinates: N 51° 08' 42.1'', E 71° 42' 51.3''. The monument is situated at the southwestern tip of the city of Astana, located on the eastern shore of Lake Buzukty.

The monument originated in the early Middle Ages (8th-9th centuries) as a sacred center of the ancient Kipchak tribes. During the era of the Kipchak Khanate (10th-12th centuries), it served as a seasonal headquarters, the residence of one of the rulers of Desht-i-Kipchak. In the 13th-16th centuries, it became a burial site for nomads and a cult-memorial complex of the Ulus of Jochi and the period of the formation of the Kazakh Khanate.

The site was first discovered and noted in the travel notes of mining engineer I.P. Shangin (1816). In 1998, the site was rediscovered by renowned archaeologists K.A. Akishev and M.K. Khabdulina. Archaeological excavations of the monument were conducted from 1999 to 2014 by the Yesil stationary archaeological expedition.

The structure of the Bozok settlement consists of four parts. The first and oldest part is three quarters, surrounded by ditches and ramparts, as well as the ruins of mausoleums and Muslim burials. The second part is a medieval necropolis. The third part is a complex of stationary dwellings of the pit-house type. The fourth part is the irrigation system around the settlement.

The quarters are offset relative to each other and compositionally resemble a three-petaled flower. The quarters are approximately the same size: 65 x 55 m. The modern height of the ramparts reaches 1 m, the base width is 10-15 m, the ditches are 3 m wide and 0.5-1 m deep. In the central part, at the junction of the quarters, there is a rectangular platform measuring 60 x 17 m, 2 m high, extending from west to east. On its surface are placed grave enclosures, mausoleums made of fired bricks (one of them had a portal decorated with carved terracotta).

The multi-room pit-type dwellings are located in the northern part of the monument. In the rooms along the walls, clay benches are placed, the edges of which are reinforced with fired bricks. The dwellings were heated by wall-mounted fireplaces and hearths.

Today, the construction of the Bozok Open-Air National Park is underway on the territory of the monument. The main task of the park is to reconstruct the Bozok settlement.