Abat-Baitak necropolis

Type of monument: Sacral object of national importance

Date of monument: XIV-XX centuries

Location: Aktyubinsk region, Khobda district, 12 km south-south-west of Taldysai village

Research: This monument was first mentioned in the book of P.I. Rychkov “Topography of the Orenburg province”, which says that the second lieutenant Rigelman in a place where the river Karasu flows into Bolshaya Kobda, found and sketched stone pyramid-like structures, which the Kirghiz (Kazakh) called Astana and allegedly buried nobles, one of which they call Baitan (Baitak). Later, at the end of the twentieth century, Ya.Ya. Polferov described this monument, taking the legend as a basis. For the first time in the twentieth century a graphic fixture of “Baitak mausoleum” was published in the work of I.A. Kastanie “Antiquities of the Kirghiz steppe and the Orenburg region”. In the postwar years the monument began to attract the attention of historians who studied the architecture of nomads. M. Mendikulov conducted a comparative typological analysis of the Abat-Baitak mausoleum. Comprehensive study of the Abat-Baitak necropolis, long considered in the scientific community as a lost monument, was conducted in 1979-1980 by the expedition of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Kazakhstan (headed by S. Azhigali).

Brief description: Significance of the Abat-Baitak complex is associated with foundation of the necropolis here in the XVIII-XX centuries, which is of great importance for the Kazakh people. It includes, in addition to Abat mausoleum, one mausoleum, built of wet brick and more than 200 gravestones, which are located on the western side of the graves. Abat-Baitak gravestones differ in various patterns, compositional and decorative solutions and attractiveness of stone carving. Among them, a petrified wood gravestone in the western part of the necropolis draws attention with its unusual simplicity. Many of the monuments have texts and signs written in Kazakh in Arabic script. They have very important historical and ethnographic significance. Representatives of Tabyn, Kete, Shekti, Ozhyrai, Baibakty and other clans of the Younger Juz were buried here. According to the doctor of historical sciences, professor S. Azhigali, the mausoleum had a portal with a wall thickness of 3 meters and height about 5 meters. The main height of the mausoleum was 16 meters, and the present height is 14.5 meters.

Legend: According to the legend, this mausoleum was built for Abat Batyr, the son of Asan Kaig, who lived in the 15th century and was looking for the land of promise “Zheruyik”. Abat batyr, who went out in search of good pastures for his cattle on his father’s errand, fell from camel and died at Beskopa. The second name of the mausoleum “Baitak” means “vast, wide, endless”. According to the legend, Baitak was a man who helped the poor a lot and was very generous. It is said that this name was given to him by the people.