Gu'ldu'rsin qalas |
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LocationBig Gu'ldu'rsin qala (or Bol'shoi Guldursun Kala in its Russian form) lies just over 15km due north of To'rtku'l in the Ellikqala tuman of Qaraqalpaqstan. The citadel is located within a small rural community and is surrounded by houses and cultivated fields. It lies to the west of the Tazabagyab irrigation canal.Big Gu'ldu'rsin qala.
ExcavationsThe medieval remains of Big Gu'ldu'rsin qala were investigated by Yakh'ya Gulyamov in 1937. The site was re-examined by Xojaniyazov and Manilov in the early 1980s.Satellite image of Big Gu'ldu'rsin qala. Image courtesy of Google Earth.Schematic plan of Big Gu'ldu'rsin qala.
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It was located on the very eastern edge of the Khorezm oasis facing the Qizil Qum desert and the Qipchaq steppes beyond.
The qala that we see today was mainly built in the 12th century and is what remained after the city was overwhelmed by the Mongols in 1221.
Fortunately the city was not completely obliterated and since the right bank of Khorezm became part of the ulus of Chaghatay rather than
Jöchi, it was never subsequently redeveloped. As such it provides a fine example of an urban centre dating from the time of the Anushteginid
dynasty of Khorezmshahs.
One fascinating feature of the structure is that only the north-east facing wall has been built with arrow slits, arranged in a chessboard fashion.
Furthermore the arrow slits appear to have been built the wrong way round - they point inwards rather than outwards!
The reason is that the 12th century citadel was built next to a much older medieval fort, which had been constructed with double walls on top of a
paqsa socle, the space in between containing the archers' galleries. The older fort was demolished apart from one of its exterior walls,
and this was incorporated into the new citadel. With its inner wall no longer present, the old external wall was reinforced with an outer covering
of paqsa.
The architecture of the 12th century citadel is quite different from the earlier fortifications of Khorezm. It had a single entrance located in the
centre of the south-east wall, defended by a rectangular barbican, but there were no arrow slits in its outer walls. Instead its flanking walls and
corners were defended by a radically new system of double towers, which projected well out from the line of the walls and provided a wide field of
defensive fire in each direction. It is likely that the outer towers were reached by means of mobile bridges.
The remains of internal buildings have been found just inside the western and eastern walls and also in the centre of the site.
Sergey Tolstov recounted another legend told to one of his young Qaraqalpaq students as a child.
According to the tale, the citadel was once a rich city known as Gulistan, the garden of roses, and it was ruled by an old governor who had a beautiful
daughter named Gu'ldu'rsin. When the city was invaded by warlike Kalmuks, the people's crops and livestock were destroyed and they were soon left
starving from hunger. The old ruler came up with a cunning plan to break the siege of the city. The residents took their best bull and fed him up on
the remains of their grain and then they prominently displayed him just outside the city walls. The Kalmuks, suffering from hunger themselves, realized
that the local people must still have had so much food that they could even continue to fatten their cattle. They realized that their siege was
pointless and prepared to pack up their yurts and leave.
However the governor's daughter Gu'ldu'rsin had other plans. She had fallen for the handsome young Kalmuk prince and to prevent him leaving she secretly
sent her maidservant to see him with a message, telling the Kalmuks to wait for just one more day. When the residents awoke the following morning they
were dismayed to see that their ruse had failed and they had no option but to surrender. The city was burnt and its citizens murdered or enslaved.
The young traitress was brought in front of the Kalmuk prince who told her that for the sake of her emotions she had betrayed her father and her people.
How likely was it that she would remain loyal to him in the face of another strong temptation? He ordered her to be tied to the tails of wild horses. Her body was
torn to pieces and spread over the surrounding fields. Her blood poisoned the soil and turned it into desert. From that day onwards the ruined city
became known as Gu'ldu'rsin.
Google Earth Coordinates | ||
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Place | Latitude North | Longitude East |
Big Gu'ldu'rsin qala | 41º 41.590 | 60º 58.890 |
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This page was first published on 3 September 2008. It was last updated on 30 January 2012. © David and Sue Richardson 2005 - 2018. Unless stated otherwise, all of the material on this website is the copyright of David and Sue Richardson. |