The name of the monument: Necropolis “Khan Molasy”. Burial place of Abilkayir khan.
Typological affiliation: Sacred object.
Dating of the monument: XVIII-XX centuries.
Location of the monument: Aktobe region, Aiteke bi district, 77 km south-east of the village of Tolybai.
Historical information: The formation of the necropolis is associated with the tragic events of the middle of the 18th century that took place in this area: the murder of the Younger Zhuz Khan Abilkayir and his burial here. Over the course of several decades, a large steppe cemetery was formed in this place, where burials were made until the middle of the twentieth century. The necropolis has long been a place of pilgrimage – first of all, in connection with the cult of the “holy grave” of the khan. The burial of Abilkayir on Khan Molasy is confirmed by a whole complex of sources and evidence: historical, toponymic, questionnaire-ethnographic, cartographic, ethnoarchaeological, archaeological, anthropological-genetic, etc.
Description and characteristics of the monument: The Khan Molasy necropolis is a vast steppe cemetery located along an old dirt road (immediately to the west of it), which runs parallel to the Olkeyek riverbed in this area. It was not tied to any settlement or a pre-existing cult, monument – for example, the Kazakh necropolises of Khan zirat in the Horde or Abat-Baytak in the valley of the r. Uly Khobda. The rather rapid development of the necropolis on Olkeyek was associated both with the charismatic personality of the Kazakh ruler – the “great martyr”, the cult of his grave and the sacred tree, and with the location of the complex on the migration routes of large clans of the Northern Aral Kazakhs: Shomekey, Altyn, Zhappas. Along with them, the Kazakhs of the Argyn clan of nearby territories began to make burials at the “sacral cemetery”. The total area of the repository (taking into account the minimum security zone along its perimeter) is not less than 16.0 hectares. In total, 942 grave structures have been identified on the territory of the necropolis: instrumental theodolite survey in 2001 (taking into account inevitable errors; drift, disappearance of many monuments, their total number, obviously, exceeded 1 thousand). These are mainly grave mounds, mounds with pits-depressions over burials and without them; just grave depressions; heavily swollen remnants of adobe structures such as enclosures (quadrangular “turtulak” and oval “Korgan”) and mausoleums. In addition, in the area of the cemetery, about 40 stone-cut monuments – steles and tombstones – were revealed, which mainly belong to the types “kuktas” (vertically installed monuments dug into the head of the grave) and “samargantas” (laid horizontally, above the grave) and made of imported marble-like stone: the region of South Kyzylkum, Nuratau, etc. There is also a number of classic flat West Kazakh kulpytases made of limestone-sandstone. (According to the information of individual informants, the number of stone-cut monuments was large: some of them were removed, lost. It is possible that their number reached 45-50 in the recent past). In 2015, an architectural monument of white granite with a height of 25 meters was built here, the interior of which was decorated with generic tamgas of the Kazakh people (in the amount of 52 pieces) and a mausoleum. (According to the information of individual informants, the number of stone-cut monuments was large: some of them were removed, lost. It is possible that their number reached 45-50 in the recent past). In 2015, an architectural monument of white granite with a height of 25 meters was built here, the interior of which was decorated with generic tamgas of the Kazakh people (in the amount of 52 pieces) and a mausoleum. (According to some informants, the number of stone-cut monuments was large: some of them were removed, lost. It is possible that their number in the recent past reached 45-50). In 2015, an architectural monument of white granite with a height of 25 meters was built here, the interior of which was decorated with the generic tamgas of the Kazakh people (in the amount of 52 pieces) and a mausoleum.