Massimov familiarized with tourism potential of Turkestan

Turkestan is considered to be a cultural capital of Kazakhstan which attracted over a million tourists last year. The region is actively implementing a new project today together with the Center of Cultural and Historical Tourism in Turkestan in order to promote tourism. 

For this purpose, as per the Cultural Heritage program of the President of Kazakhstan, Kone Turkestan (Ancient Turkestan)  concept has been developed and adopted. The concept provides for restoration and conservation works near the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Mausoleum located in the territory of the Hazrat Sultan State Historical and Cultural Reserve Museum.  According to Director Zhandos Aubakir, the property inscribed on the World Cultural Heritage List of UNESCO is a striking architectural monument of the history of Kazakhstan, and is considered to be the main attraction of Turkestan. 

The Otrar State Archaeological reserve museum has also drawn great tourist interest. The museum located in the territory of the Arystan Baba Mausoleum offers 23 thousand exhibits including a research library. Director of the complex Aibek Zhandosov explained that the museum had become a major research center and repository of archaeological artifacts found during the excavation of the unique historical monument of Otrar, which played an important role as the economic and commercial center of the region in ancient times. The unique complex consists of four archeological monuments of national significance and 216 monuments of local significance, including the ancient cities of the Otrar oasis, pm.kz reported.

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The Cultural Heritage program was launched on the initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev and aims at creating an integrated system for studying the great cultural heritage of Kazakhstan, and summarizing the multi-century experience of national literature and writing. In the period from 2004 to 2011, three phases of this far-reaching strategic program were successfully implemented. As a result, over 25 thousand monuments, and more than 2 million valuable cultural objects have been recognized today. 

The monuments of the Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Mausoleum, Ancient Otrar complex, and the Tamgaly petroglyphs have been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.