New Yurta Campuses for Foreign Tourists
19.08.2011

Uzbekturizm NC in conjunction with newly-created tourist company Djanbas Kala Tour has organized a presentation of a new yurta campus for foreign tourists in Ellikkala district of Karakalpakstan

District of Ellikkala is a unique land attracting inquisitive tourists and scholars all across the globe with its monuments of antiquity and early Middle Ages. The name of the district Ellikkala was given not by chance and means ‘fifty fortresses’. Even one could here the aged fortresses: Ayozqal’a, Qirqqiz, Burgunqal’a, Devqal’a, Teshikqal’a, Tuproqqal’a, complex Ko’yqrilganqal’a, as well as one of the prominent antique monuments in Central Asia – settlement Janbasqal’a.

Namely here, among barchans next to the monument Janbasqal’a is located a new yurt campus where travelers are expected warm welcome and all conveniences to take rest in the shade of cane veranda. They will be treated with a cup of refreshing tea, eastern sweets and savoring rich shurpa (soup). Time spent in the yurt campus makes the travel exotic and spices it with unforgettable feelings. This is a wonderful opportunity to plunge into the history and through a prism of the past to comprehend the present, make enthralling explorations among speechless sands and endless silence.

As like appear oneself in the fourth century BC, in the period of history of ancient Khorazm that got the name ‘Kanguy period’, one could walk around Janbasqal’a. The fortress is located in the conjunction of lands of old irrigation and nomad steppe.

It was built in the desert upland locking the chain of hills extending to the southeast from Sultanuizdag mountains. Perfectly remained massive walls of the fortress Janbasqal’a are orientated with sides straightly to four corners of the earth. Double, five-meter-thick walls, strewn in some places with sand barchans, reach the height of ten meters. Art of fortification of builders of Janbasqal’a fully demonstrated in this sophisticated construction that reached our days almost in good state. The fortress defended the only gate that led to the settlement.

Remains of the temple of fire adjoining to the wall of the fortress draw much interest. Residents of Janbasqal’a were adherents of Zoroastrianism, the oldest world religion, dominated on the territory from Khorazm to India and from Xinjiang to Middle East for more than thousand years.

Those inquisitive travelers are awaited ancient ritual, as well as national Karakalpak and Khorazmian dances. Spectacular performance next to the evening fire and captivating atmosphere would imprinted in minds of tourists for a long time. 

Firuza Akabirova