Burana Tower

Burana Tower

Balbal, Burana Tower

Archaeological and Architectural Complex

The Burana archeological and architectural complex is situated 12 km to the south of Tokmak. The name Burana is believed to be a corruption in a local dialect of the Turkic word munara “minaret”: for centuries, all that remained of Balasagun were the topless, 25-meter minaret and the overgrown mound of the old citadel. Originally, minaret was 37 to 38 meters high, but in the 16th century an earthquake badly damaged the memorial. Near the minaret there are the ruins of three mausoleums, only their basements were preserved.
The site first attracted attention of archaeologists in the late 1880s. There is also a small museum displaying excavated objects.

Burana is on the site of an ancient settlement of the 10th century that is identified with the historical city Balasagun, which was the capital of the Karakhanids State during the 10th to 12th centuries. Balasagun was so important that Genghis Khan’s Mongol Horde spared the city from destruction when they began to conquer the world in the early 13th century.
Only central ruins of inner city (shakhristan), measuring 570 to 600 meters, were preserved from the primary square of the medieval city, which used to be 30 square km. A cultural layer of the city hides numerous remains of building of the 10th to 14th centuries.

Balasagun was the birthplace (in 1015) of the poet Jusup Balasagun whose works were the brilliant examples of the high Islamic culture in Medieval Central Asia. His only survived work “Kutadgy Bilig” (“the knowledge that brings happiness”) was written in his native Uigur language in Arabic script in about 1070.