Kyzyltam

Object name and dating: Kyzyltam Mausoleum, XVI-XVII centuries.

Location: Aktobe region, Kargalinsky district, 56 km. northeast of the city of Aktobe on the northwestern shore of the Kargalinsky reservoir.

Description: The Kyzyltam mausoleum is one of the significant monuments of the Hobdinsko-Ilek group and is located 56 km north-east of Aktobe on the bank of the Kargalinsky reservoir. Here, on the top of the Estektau hill, are the ruins of the Kyzyltam mausoleum known in the literature of the late medieval period. According to the legend written down by Ya.Ya. Polferov, the origin of the monument is associated with the history of the unsuccessful matchmaking of the Khiva Khan at the beginning of the 17th century. Arab Mohammed to the daughter of a certain Kalmyk leader Badmai. However, a complex of architectural and structural features allows us to correlate Kyzyltam with the mausoleums of Abat-Baitak and Kesen in the Chelyabinsk region. and presumably to date the considered monument to an earlier time: XV-XVI centuries.

The Kyzyltam mausoleum is a sub-square in plan (6.05 × 6.05 m) mausoleum, similar in these parameters to the Kesene structure. Judging by the fixation of I.A.Kastanier at the beginning of the 20th century, the mausoleum had a double dome on arched trumpets. It is likely that the outer dome was hipped, like the above mausoleums. The monument was built of baked bricks 24x24x5.5-6 cm in size (as well as the Abat-Baytak mausoleum). At present, the north-north-west wall of the quadrangle and adjacent sections of the walls have been preserved. In the northwest corner of the interior, the heels of the tromp sails have been preserved. The highest preserved height of the monument is 3.75 m.

On the neighboring hills and slopes are scattered several tens of grave monuments in the form of stone fences with kulpytas at the western walls. In general, the steles are typical of the Hobdinsko-Ilek group, but there are also original specimens: for example, a kulpytas with a disc-shaped pommel, framed by volutes, and with a crowning spherical element. significance as the most northern of the investigated group of West Kazakhstan stone-cut monuments.