Dear Air Astana flyer,
Forty-five kilometres northwest of Turkistan the traveller turns right off a new highway. Following a short drive down an unsealed track, he or she is confronted by a partially-restored gatepost and circular tower on the edge of what appears to be a wide moat stretching far away to the east. Walking through the gatepost, crumbling outer fortifications enclose around 10 sq. km of symmetrically laid out and partiallyexcavated streets and buildings. Welcome to Sauran, not so much beautiful as aweinspiring, frightening even, with its silent, jagged fortifications, darkened by the late afternoon winter sun, standing as ghostly sentinel over the frozen plains and fire and elements-shattered remains of what was one of the earliest and most prosperous settlements of the northern Silk Road. Less restored and therefore more mysterious than its better-known twin, Otrar, to the south east, Sauran suffered a similarly fatal historical trajectory, sacked by the Mongols before its resurrection as a significant city of the Kazakh Khanate, prior to its final destruction by the Dzungars in the early 18th century.
Sauran is just one of the fascinating sites in and around the city of Turkistan, the expansion of which I talked about in these pages a year ago and whose development is now in full swing, with hotels for all budgets, schools, universities, residential estates and parks, in a well-planned and tastefully constructed growing cluster around the 14th century mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, a major international pilgrimage site and resting place of many of the most illustrious political, religious, artistic and scientific figures in Kazakh history. A brand-new airport opened last December and it was my good fortune to accompany the first commercial flight, a Flyarystan A320 service from Nur-sultan. Flyarystan now flies from both Almaty and Nur-sultan and therefore these previously time-locked ancient lands are cheaply and easily accessible, and a must-visit.
I wish you and your families a very happy New Year, in the hope that 2021 will bring us all better times, and I wish you a pleasant flight with us today.
Yours truly,