Place · lake

Aral Sea

What the sources say here: 4 passages

A petrified city on the Aral Sea

Editorial contextIn Bukhara Burnes heard tales of an enchanted, petrified city on the south-west shore of the Aral Sea called Barsa-gil-mis, Turkic for 'go and never return', because curious visitors never came back. He files it with Bukharan belief in magic and remarks that 'distance gives countenance to most of the fables'.

tales of an enchanted and petrified city which was described by the Bokharees as lying on the south-western corner of the Sea of Aral, and between Orgunje and Orenburg. They call it "Barsa-gil-mis;" which, in Toorkee, means, to go and never return; since such is said to be the fate of the curious.

Alexander Burnes (1834)

See the original page (p. 321)

About Bukharans (storytellers)

Keep in mind

A local legend that Burnes reports with open scepticism.

Continue in this sourceAlexander Burnes's journey from India to Bukhara, 1831 to 18331831 to 1833 · 14 passages

Strange tales Kuvandzhur stream, Kazakh steppe north of the Aral Sealate October 1820 (story set a century or more earlier)

Skeletons sitting on horseback in the old graves

Editorial contextNear an old burial ground of hollow-topped stone mounds, Kazakhs told Eversmann that a hundred or more years earlier they had opened some graves to learn whether Muslims or unbelievers lay there. They said they found human skeletons sitting on horseback with silver sabres and stirrups, and women with necklaces of pearls and precious stones laid in their mouths. The Kazakhs believed the dead were Kalmyks; Eversmann classes the mounds with the so-called Chud graves.

they relate that a hundred or more years ago they had not known whether Muslims or unbelievers were buried there, so it was decided to open some graves, where human skeletons were then found sitting on horseback, as well as many implements of silver, such as sabres, stirrups and so on; women too were found, whose necklaces of pearls and precious stones had been laid in their mouths.
Working translation
Original wording
sie erzählen, dass sie vor hundert oder mehreren Jahren nicht gewusst hatten, ob dort Muhamedaner oder Ungläubige begraben lägen, deshalb habe man beschlossen einige Gräber zu öffnen, wo man alsdann Menschengerippe zu Pferde sitzend gefunden habe, so wie auch viele Geräthe von Silber, als Säbel, Steigbügel etc. auch habe man Weiber vorgefunden, denen ihr Halsgeschmeide, bestehend aus Perlen und kostbaren Steinen, in den Mund gelegt gewesen wäre.

Eduard Eversmann, reporting Kazakh informants

See the original page (p. 29)

About Kazakhs (Kirghiz) as tellers; the dead said to be Kalmyks

Keep in mind

Pure hearsay about a dig long before Eversmann's visit; he saw only the stone mounds.

Continue in this sourceEversmann's journey from Orenburg to Bukhara, 1820 to 18211820 to 1821 · 10 passages

Buildings Lower Syr Darya, east of the Aral Sea, KazakhstanNovember 1820

Domed steppe tombs built by hired Bukharans

Editorial contextEversmann describes the typical larger Kazakh tomb of the southern steppe: a round building with a domed cupola topped by a small pillar, a projecting entrance with a pointed arch and four attached corner pillars. They were mostly of unfired brick, sometimes rubble, all quite new, and built by Bukharans whom the Kazakhs paid in sheep or grain. He mentions them only because Europeans imagined such things very differently; poorer graves where there is no stone were gabled vaults of clay. A footnote says Pallas drew the 'Tatar tombs' of southern Russia in just the same way.

They are mostly built of unfired bricks, sometimes also of rubble stone. All these tombs are very new and were built by Bukharans, whose labour the Kirghiz pay either in sheep or in grain … The whole thing is, moreover, a most wretched piece of work, and I mention it only because in Europe people imagine such things quite differently from what they really are.
Working translation
Original wording
Sie sind grösstentheils von ungebrannten Ziegeln aufgebaut, mitunter auch von Bruchsteinen. Alle diese Grabmähler sind sehr neu und von Bucharen aufgebaut, denen ihre Mühe von den Kirgisen entweder mit Schaafen oder mit Getraide bezahlt wird … Das Ganze ist übrigens ein höchst erbärmliches Machwerk, und ich führe es nur bloss deshalb an, weil man sich in Europa dergleichen Dinge ganz anders vorstellt, als sie wirklich sind.

Eduard Eversmann

See the original page (p. 45)

About Kazakhs (Kirghiz) as patrons; Bukharans as builders

Keep in mind

The dismissive judgement of the workmanship is Eversmann's taste; the facts about materials and builders are his observation and inquiry.

Continue in this sourceEversmann's journey from Orenburg to Bukhara, 1820 to 18211820 to 1821 · 10 passages

Daily life Kuvandzhur stream, Kazakh steppe north of the Aral Sealate October 1820

Kazakhs bury their dead beside old 'Tatar' tombs

Editorial contextEversmann accepts that the Kazakhs really had opened the old graves, not for treasure but to learn whether Muslims of old times lay there. Such places were holy to them, and they now buried their own dead only there, so that wherever a 'Tatar tomb' stands, Kazakh graves cluster around it. It shows how a later people claimed older monuments as part of its own sacred landscape.

That the Kirghiz really dug up the graves is easy to believe, not in order to look for treasure, but to learn whether Muslims of old times lay buried there, for such places are holy to them and only there do they now bury their dead: wherever one finds a Tatar tomb, one also sees Kirghiz graves all around it.
Working translation
Original wording
Dass die Kirgisen die Gräber wirklich aufgegraben haben, ist wohl zu glauben, nicht etwa um Schätze zu suchen, sondern um zu wissen ob dort Muhamedaner aus alten Zeiten begraben lägen, denn solche Stellen sind ihnen heilig und nur dort begraben sie jetzt ihre Todten: überall wo man ein tatarisches Grabmahl findet, sieht man auch rund umher Kirgisische Gräber.

Eduard Eversmann

See the original page (p. 30)

About Kazakhs (Kirghiz); earlier 'Tatar' dead

Continue in this sourceEversmann's journey from Orenburg to Bukhara, 1820 to 18211820 to 1821 · 10 passages

On the old maps

Maps that name Aral Sea.

c. 950IstakhriSuwar al-buldan

Map: Kharidat al-aja'ib, Ibn al-Wardi, c. 1419–1457

c. 1419–1457Ibn al-WardiKharidat al-aja’ib

Map: La Tartaria Indipendente delineata sulle ultime osservazioni, Cassini, 1789

1789CassiniLa Tartaria Indipendente delineata sulle ultime osservazioni

Map: Western Siberia, Independent Tartary, Khiva, Bokhara &c., SDUK, 1838

1838SDUKWestern Siberia, Independent Tartary, Khiva, Bokhara &c.

1843StielerIran und Turan

9 sources and maps name this place

c. 950approximate
Suwar al-buldan
Mal-IstakhricompilationM093
c. 1419–1457approximate
Kharidat al-aja'ib
MIbn al-WardicompilationM098
1731–1733a range
Journal of the interpreter M. Tevkelev, sent to the Junior Horde to negotiate the submission of the Kazakhs…
WMamet TevkelevfirsthandW182
1755–1762a range
Orenburg Topography, that is a detailed description of the Orenburg province
WPyotr RychkovcompilationW175
1789exact year
La Tartaria Indipendente delineata sulle ultime osservazioni
MGiovanni Maria Cassini, RomecompilationM073
1823–1832a range
Description of the Kirghiz-Kazakh or Kirghiz-Kaisak hordes and steppes
WAleksei LevshinmixedW181
1838exact year
Western Siberia, Independent Tartary, Khiva, Bokhara &c.
MSociety for the Diffusion of Useful KnowledgecompilationM058
1843exact year
Iran und Turan
MFriedrich von StuelpnagelcompilationM067
1843exact year
Central Asia
WAlexander von HumboldtmixedW265