The cult complex Balgasyn

Object name and date: cult complex Balgasyn, XIII-XVIII centuries.

Location: Aktobe region, Shalkar district, 15 km south-west of the village. Taldykum.

Description: Dome-centric mausoleum with south-facing entrance. The plan of the mausoleum from the outside and from the inside is close to a square (respectively: 9.50×10.00 m and 5.50×6.0 m). The spatial structure of the mausoleum is clearly divided into two mutually balanced volumes: a four-sided wall and a sphero-conical dome on a 28-sided drum. The powerful walls of the quadrangle (up to 2 m thick), laid out of baked bricks on clay mortar, are based on a foundation of pakhsa blocks. An entrance is arranged in the southern wall, with a swivel knee forming a vestibule and having a girder-arched ceiling. In the interior, the quadrangle is limited by a panel, surrounded on top by a horizontal masonry of three rows of bricks. Above there is a tier of arched trumpets, through which the transition to an octahedron is made, the transition from which to a circle is solved by the device of small step trumpets. Immediately above is the laying of a spherical dome of a radial-wedge structure. All interior surfaces are plastered with clay-adobe mortar and whitewashed. The walls of the quadrangle are cut with small light windows / four /. Two more similar windows are located on the drum from the west and east. The mausoleum is made of bricks of 3 sizes: 6x15x32cm., 6x22x32cm., 6x27x27cm. The height of the mausoleum is 8.80m.