Uzgen Mausoleum in Kyrgyzstan Part 1

Before we arrived in Jalal-Abad, we stopped in Uzgen. 

Kyrgyzstan didn't boast the same number of touristic architectural sites that Uzbekistan seemed to; instead, it was the landscape that reigned. There were a few sites, however, I was very excited to see. Sites that were located in unheard of towns, that took days to get to, that took three various shared taxi rides through the mountains usually with five people in a little sedan and some crazy cracked-out driving. Our adventure in getting to Uzgen proved fruitful and our gift was this: an exceptional complex of three mausoleums from the Kara-Khanid Khanate dating back to the 11th century. It was before colorful, glazed tiling was discovered, so they made due with what they had. The terracotta patterning was a fantasy.  It was a lonely building at the end of a public park, sitting by a cliff. There were hardly any people there and we were free to go in and out as we pleased. In fact, the other visitors left while we were there, and then we had it all to ourselves for the next hour. We went round and round it; we sat in front of it, we went and strolled inside of it. It was definitely one of the more amazing creatures we came across along the entirety of this trip.