What was found at the bottom of the shallow Aral Sea. Aral Atlantis. City at the bottom of the sea Dead city at the bottom of the Aral

Archaeological tours at the bottom of the Aral Sea.

"Do not say,
That the way is narrow and difficult,
Who - does not go -
That makes it even harder.”

Igor Zheglov.

“At the bottom, strewn with white salt, you can see the outlines of the ancient city, the remains of mausoleums, necropolises and settlements are clearly visible. At first, many even jokingly said that the lost Atlantis was found in Kazakhstan.

Brief description of the tour route to the Aral Sea:

Aralsk - pos. Aralkum - Lake Kombash - Amanotkel village - Bugun village - Aklak hydroelectric complex - Karateren village - Aral-Asar settlement - Kerderi mausoleum - Kok-Aral dam on the isthmus of Berg - Karateren village - Zhanakurylys village - Katankol lake - Kazaly village - Orkendeu village - settlement Zhankent - Aiteke Bi settlement (Kazalinsk).

Route length: 447km
Seasonality: May 1st to September 10th.
Best time to travel: May June.

3 days and 2 nights.

Detailed tour program day by day in the vicinity of the Aral Sea:

1 day. Aralsk - Amanotkel village - Bogen village - Karateren village (184 km.)
The beginning of the tour of Aralsk, visiting the railway station, visiting the station building, visiting the sailing ship hoisted on a pedestal and a monument to the victims of repression located on the square near the railway station. Visit to the city museum. Continuation of the city tour: visiting the museum for fishermen, the museum of the ships of the Aral flotilla in the open air, the city square with monuments - the monument to Khan Abulkhair, the monument to Zhibek and Tulegen, the stele "Kazakhstan", a walk around the square near the akimat and visiting the monuments - the fisherman and Przhevalsky's horse, alley of heroes. Lunch at the Chinson cafe. Transfer: Aralsk - Aralkum village - Lake Kombash - Amanotkel village - Bugen village (154 km). Arrival in the village of Bogen. Visiting the village of fishermen Bogen, visiting a beautiful local mosque, visiting the surroundings of a local school built in 1954, which is surrounded by sand dunes. Further transfer: Bogen village - Aklak hydroelectric complex - Karateren village (30 km). On the way, stop at the Aklak hydroelectric complex on the Syr-Darya River, which was built to fill the network of lakes that are higher, in front of the hydroelectric dam and fill the river floodplain with water, inspection of the hydroelectric complex. Arrival in the village of Karateren, accommodation in the house of the villagers, dinner, overnight. Day 2. Karateren settlement - Old Karateren settlement - Aral-Asar settlement - Kerderi mausoleum - Kok-Aral dam - Karateren settlement (101 km).
Breakfast. Transfer: Karateren - Old Karateren settlement - Aral-Asar settlement (66 km). Walk in the vicinity of the settlement, inspection of the settlement. Transfer to the mausoleum of Kerderi (2 km), visiting the archaeological excavations of the mausoleum. Lunch is on the way. Return to the village of Karateren (68 km). Trip to the Kok-Aral dam (33 km). Inspection of the Kok-Aral dam. The dam separated the Small Aral from the Large Aral Sea . The length of the dam is 13 kilometers, thanks to the dam, the water level in the Small Aral Sea has risen to a level of 42 meters. The locks of the dam regulate the level of the Small Aral Sea and excess water is discharged into the dry Big Aral, the distance to which increases every year. Return to Karateren (30 km). Accommodation in a rural house. Dinner, overnight. Day 3 Village Karateren - village Aiteke Bi (Kazalinsk)- ancient settlement Zhankent (162 km).
Breakfast. Transfer: village Karateren - village Zhanakurylys - lake Katankol - village Shomashkol - village Kazaly - village Orkendeu - settlement Zhankent (128 km). On the way, visit the monument to Asan on the banks of the Syrdarya River. Arrival at the settlements of Zhankent (Yangikent) (XV century). Walk around the settlement Zhankent. According to medieval written sources, the city of Zhankent (Yangikent) in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya was the residence of the “king of the Guzes”. Dinner. Moving to the village Aiteke Bi (34 km), arrival in the village of Aiteke-Bi. Excursion around the village, visiting the memorial museum of Gani Muratbaev (late XIX - early XX centuries), viewing monuments to Soviet statesmen, in a small park near the museum, visiting the mausoleum of Karasakal Yerimbet (1850 - 1911). Visiting the house of Ganibay (XIX century), the building of the city library (the former mosque of Ganibay, XIX century), the Nogai mosque (Nuraly mosque, XIX century), the building of the district house of culture named after Roza Baglanova (former church, 1904). Sightseeing tour of the village, visiting the city square of the village. Dinner. Seeing off at the railway station, departure from Kazalinsk station.

Distances along the routeLost world on the dry bottom of the Aral Sea».

Nothing exists forever, even majestic mountains turn into barren deserts, and the continents that dinosaurs once walked on drift and break apart. The bottom of the almost dried-up Aral Sea also presented its surprises to scientists. No one assumed that in the XIII-XIV centuries settlements were located there, which subsequently went under water. Archaeologists even compare the remains of this ancient civilization with the legendary Atlantis.

Ah, the sea, the sea...

The author of the book "100 Great Catastrophes" (Moscow, 2001), Mikhail Kubeev, classifies the shallowing of the Aral Sea, which began in the late 1960s, as a serious environmental disaster. In everything that happened, the author blames human economic activity, immoderate water intake from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya for cotton plantations, which were also plentifully treated with pesticides.

“The bare bottom of the Aral Sea (which is 2.6 million hectares) has turned into a man-made desert, which has already received the name Aralkum. Billions of tons of toxic salts have been accumulated here. From the desert bottom of the sea, millions of tons of salty-poisonous dust rise into the air, which the wind carries over long distances. With the drying up of the sea, dust storms became more frequent, ”M. N. Kubeev portrayed such a bleak picture.

Moreover, back in May 1988, the Aral broke up into two drying up reservoirs: Big and Small. And if the first of them is located in Uzbekistan, then the second one is on the territory of Kazakhstan.

natural causes

But the well-known hydrogeologist and popularizer of science Rudolf Balandin in his book “Polygons of death? Made in the USSR” (Moscow, 2011 edition) suggested that the shallowing of the sea is caused by natural factors. The scientist drew attention to the fact that the climate in Central Asia has become noticeably drier in the past few decades. And these changes "... could be caused by the deviation of moisture-bearing air masses to the north due to the global circulation of the atmosphere."

R.K. Balandin wrote that in the 1990s, for various socio-economic reasons, the volume of water withdrawal from the Amudarya and Syrdarya rivers for irrigating cotton plantations significantly decreased, but this did not even lead to a decrease in the rate of shallowing of the Aral Sea. On the contrary, experts noted an even sharper drop in sea level during this period.

“The reasons for fluctuations in the moisture content of certain regions and the associated changes in the level of endorheic water bodies, such as the Aral or Caspian Seas, remain largely mysterious. Global restructuring of atmospheric circulation (in itself incomprehensible) can affect, ”the hydrogeologist believes.

Aral Atlantis

The historic discovery was made in 2000 in the Kazakh part of the once united Aral Sea. According to the stories of scientists, the first to see the ruins of the settlement were the inhabitants of the village of Karateren, who were engaged in hunting near the island of Barsakelmes, which is located approximately 300 km northwest of the city of Kyzylorda.

By the way, the name of the island is translated from the Kazakh language in a very frightening way - "If you go - you will not return." The hunters told representatives of the local authorities about what they had seen, and already in 2001 archaeological excavations began, in which employees of the Kyzylorda State University and other scientific institutions took part.

The Itogi magazine published an article by the publicist Stepan Krivosheev “Leaving and not returning” (No 21/623 dated May 19, 2008), who visited the Kazakh part of the Aral Sea region and met with local scientists. The journalist wrote that the archaeologists conditionally called the discovered city “Aral-Asar”, which means “Aral trace”.

In terms of area, this settlement occupied about 6 hectares, and the ceramics discovered here date back to the 14th century. Near the settlement there were two mausoleums, later named "Kerderi I" and "Kerderi II".

“When we first arrived at this place, we could not believe our eyes. Imagine: at the bottom, strewn with white salt, you can see the outlines of an ancient city, the remains of mausoleums and necropolises are clearly visible. At first, many even jokingly said that the lost Atlantis was found in Kazakhstan,” said Dmitry Voyakin, head of the Department for Conservation and Archaeological Documentation of the Institute of Archeology named after A. Kh. Margulan of the Ministry of Education and Science of Kazakhstan.

It is interesting that the inhabitants of the village of Karateren say that they saw at least two more similar settlements, also previously hidden by the waters of the Aral Sea. That is, it is possible that we are talking about a whole culture previously unknown to scientists.

Who lived there

Judging by the tools found for agricultural production and millstones, it turns out that the inhabitants of Aral-Asar were mainly engaged in agriculture. They grew rice and ground it into flour. This is surprising, because it was previously believed that in the XIII-XIV centuries Central Asia was inhabited mainly by nomadic cattle breeders. However, huge warehouses and rice plantations surrounding the city with characteristic irrigation systems indicate that local farmers could well be engaged in the supply of flour for export - along the Great Silk Road.

Director of the Institute of Archeology named after A. Kh. Margulan, Karl Baipakov noted that the ancient city was built thoroughly. So, people did not plan to leave these places for a long time. In the center there were residential buildings, to which, on one side, an industrial zone adjoined, and on the other, a necropolis with mausoleums.

Scientists suggest that Aral-Asar was inhabited by the descendants of the Oghuz and Kipchaks. The former are the possible ancestors of Azerbaijanis, Turks and Turkmens, while the latter participated in the ethnogenesis of modern Kazakhs, Bashkirs, Karachays and some other peoples.

Judging by the burials, the inhabitants of Aral-Asar professed Islam. But gold earrings found in one of the crypts in the form of a leopard biting its own tail testify that pagan traditions were still strong among the population.

Researchers believe that at the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongol conquerors destroyed the irrigation systems in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya, after which the sea almost completely dried up. People came to these lands and began to grow rice. But then nature recovered, and the river again carried its waters to the Aral. The farmers had to leave their homes and move.

Although it is possible that the shallowing of the sea is in no way connected with the activities of the Mongol conquerors, but occurs periodically for natural reasons.

"40 Cities" by Academician Margulan

The journalist of the newspaper "Kyzylorda Vesti", Kazybek Botaev, in the article "Discovering the secrets of the Aral Sea" (issue dated December 5, 2017) noted that the results of recent studies conducted by scientists on the dry bottom of the Aral Sea confirm the hypothesis of the founder of the Kazakh school of archeology Alkey Margulan (1904 -1985). The academician suggested that in ancient times a developed culture existed on this territory, numbering about 40 cities and settlements.

At one time, the scientific world was skeptical about the idea of ​​A.Kh. It was believed that in the Middle Ages, the Aral Sea region was a bare steppe, because the warlike tribes of livestock breeders, with their regular raids, simply would not have allowed the agricultural culture to develop here.

“Currently, Kazakh scientists completely refute the previously existing opinion about the separate existence of cultures of nomads and people who switched to a settled way of life at an early stage of society development. Close communication between nomads and city dwellers contributed to the formation of a separate steppe culture. This is proved by various household items found during the excavations of the Aral-Asar settlement,” wrote Kazybek Botaev, referring to the opinion of Yerkebulan Eleuov, a researcher at the state institution for the protection of historical and cultural monuments of the Kyzylorda region.

The fact that the Aral Sea periodically filled with water or dried up can be understood even from the works of Greek scientists. For example, the famous historian Herodotus (484-425 BC) argued that the Caspian and Aral are a single body of water. Perhaps that was the case in his time. But the Byzantine author of the 6th century, Menander the Protector, in his work “History” spoke no longer about the sea, but about a system of lakes, on the banks of which entire cities were located.

Treasures of the mausoleum "Kerderi"

More than gold, archaeologists are known to appreciate fragments of clay pots. Aral-Asar ancient settlement is a great material for research, which is still underway. Here, scientists found various tiled tiles, grindstones, the remains of a brick workshop, copper coins, various household utensils, jewelry, etc.

Professor of Kyzylorda State University Ablai (Abylay) Aidosov drew attention to the fact that the foundation of the mausoleum "Kerderi" was built of stone slabs and was a very solid structure, and the walls of the building were lined with burnt bricks. Moreover, their thickness is more than a meter. Medieval builders decorated the facade with glazed tiles, and at the entrance to the mausoleum there were inscriptions made in gold letters in Arabic.

An analysis of the burials showed that there was a noticeable social stratification among the inhabitants of Aral-Asar, the burials of local aristocrats are easily distinguished by massive tombstones and general decoration.

It is noteworthy that in the mausoleum one of the farmers hid a large jug with tools resembling modern hoes. As the researchers suggested, this man hoped to use them after the water came down and he returned to his native land, but his plans were not destined to come true.

It turns out that there are also examples, backed up by archaeologists, of the presence of ancient buildings on the former bottom of the Aral Sea:

Aral-asar

Chronology of the drying up of the Aral Sea

Aral-asar - settlement or settlement of the XIV century. Found at the bottom of a dried section of the Aral Sea.
To the west of the settlement, the remains of rice fields were found. The settlement is dated according to the discovered coins of the Golden Horde period.

In 2001, not far from the already dried-up island of Barsakelmes, a joint archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archeology. A. Margulan and Kyzylorda State University. Korkyt-Ata, under the guidance of the candidate of historical sciences T. Mamiev, examined a large, well-preserved mausoleum and other fragments of an ancient highly developed settlement, discovered by the inhabitants of the Aral settlement of Karateren. The find was located in the depths of 18 - 20 m of the former sea and was sensational.
Then, in 2004, the archaeological expedition of the Kyzylorda State University named after Korkyt-Ata, led by Professor A. Aidosov, examined the second mausoleum.

The finds were tentatively attributed by scientists to the period of the 12th-15th centuries.

Nakhodka is located 63 kilometers to the north from the village of Karateren and 370 kilometers from Kyzylorda. The village of Karateren, not so long ago, stood on the shores of the Aral Sea, but now it is 120 kilometers away from it.
According to scientists, the settlement, conditionally named Aral-Asar, occupies an area of ​​6 hectares. The building structures of the city today are practically indistinguishable, they are blurred and smoothed out by the waters of the Aral Sea. On the other hand, archaeologists found a huge number of household items: millstones, ceramic vessels and their fragments, fragments of iron and bronze products.

Found 14 millstones and adjacent rooms for storing flour - khumdans. Apparently, flour-grinding production was developed.
There was an irrigation canal 2 - 2.5 meters wide, passing through the settlement, testifies to the developed irrigation system and the fact that the inhabitants stretched water here, apparently from the channels of the ancient channels of the Amu Darya or Syr Darya for many tens of kilometers.

Approximate coordinates: 46 "02" north latitude; 60"25" east longitude.

Tree trunk on the dry bottom of the Aral Sea. Consequently, the sea is very young, formed by catastrophic processes, and which disappeared (dried up) not due to human economic activity.
***

On June 19 - 20, 1990, aerial photography was carried out at a level of the Great Sea of ​​about 38 m abs., that is, after a drop in level by 15 m. water and lying on dry areas of the seabed. Various figures consisted of single or several parallel lines of an unusual shape. Unusualness was in the too correct, not random form of many of them. And this view suggested their artificial origin. Therefore, the figures were given the name "Traces of unknown activity at the bottom of the Aral Sea" or simply "Aral Footprints". They cover an area of ​​about 500 km2 in the images, but they seem to continue beyond the aerial photographs. Before the sea level began to fall, the figures were at depths of 10 - 15 m, and were not visible from the sea surface.

For different figures, the lines have a length from 100 - 200 m to 6 - 8 km, and their width, strictly constant within each figure, varies from 2 to 100 m. Some figures may contain up to several dozen parallel lines, resembling a stroke of a comb up to 1 - 2 km.

Under water, the lines look like black stripes with narrow light edgings, similar to the dumps of soil from earthen channels, and when they dry on the shore, they become whitish, with little contrast. The black color of the lines along some of their length when they reach the drained shore indicates their concave relief, similar to the cross section of channels, and their fullness with water. According to indirect indications in the photographs and measurements of two figures on the ground, it was established that the lines of the figures are furrows with an initial depth of up to 0.4 - 0.5 m, formed in the sandy-silty soil of the seabed. Light spots on the surface of the water - sun glare. The black lines appearing against their background are the convex parts of the furrows in the form of soil dumps rising above the surface of the water.

The age of the furrows, if it is assumed to be estimated from the images by the degree of sagging of their contours and taking into account the relatively low rate of accumulation of bottom organic sediments, can be roughly determined within the range of up to several hundred years. And the pictures of the mutual intersection of the furrows (successively up to four times) indicate cases of their sequential formation (carrying out) at different times over the previously created ones.

Official explanation of scientists: the sea is leaving not for the first time. But I have a different version.

On old maps, the Caspian Sea looks different than it does now. A huge number of cities were located where the desert is now.

Most likely, this event happened quite recently:

The outline of the Caspian shores has changed. From the east it retreated and moved south. But a huge mass of water remained where the Aral Sea is now drying up. Those. all the buildings found at the bottom of the Aral Sea were cities and villages in the deltas of the rivers flowing into the ancient Caspian.

There is such a map overlay:

The western part of the boundary of the ancient Caspian and the present approximately coincide. The Volga Delta coincides. But the eastern outline of the ancient Caspian extends far beyond the Aral Sea. It was possibly a single body of water. How then the settlements of farmers could be located is not clear. Perhaps such an overlay is incorrect. Not to scale. Or indeed, the level of the Aral Sea fluctuates. And people moved, settled after the outgoing sea.
Another option is that this is a very ancient map with much more ancient outlines of the Caspian Sea.
Sources:
[Click to read]

Here the Aral Sea is different. Although the Caspian is already in its modern form.

Clickable. 1723 Joachim Ottens. A compass is shown in the center of the map, so north on the map is on the left. The Caspian is also different. But it differs both from the real outlines and from the maps of the 16th century.
I do not rule out that there were several reasons leading to a change in the shape of the seas of this region. All in varying degrees of catastrophicity and duration in time.

Another assumption is that the maps of the 16th century, where the Caspian has an oval shape (stretched from west to east), and not from north to south, as it is now, is the wrong location of the Caspian on the maps. The compilers redrawn from different sources and did not pay attention to the location of the north:

Here the north is still there, on the left. And this card may have been transferred later as seen.

Then, according to this assumption, it turns out that the Aral Sea did not exist before (recently). The settlements and finds found at its bottom are the remains of ancient cities, which are depicted in many on these maps. And there really were a lot of cities.
I had several articles about some of the cities and fortresses of this region:

There are several opinions. Official: this is the bottom of the ancient sea. Another, alternative opinion is that it was the salts of the flood waters that stood in these places. But there are many lowlands, valleys, where such a picture is not observed. Although there must also be water.
My opinion is that this fact is connected with the release of salt and mineral masses of underground water. And it is in these places in large numbers. I mentioned underground oceans. As you can see on the maps, there are saline soils and soils even in the north. I think this is due precisely to the powerful outflows of salt and mineral deep waters to the surface (from underground lakes, seas). It is possible that it was they who fed and maintained the level of the Aral Sea, and not the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers.

The remains of an ancient cult temple were found on the dried bottom of the Aral Sea. An archaeological expedition that arrived at the site of the find found that the structure dates back to the 11th-14th centuries and is a copy of the Yasawi mausoleum in Turkestan. Burials of dead soldiers were opened nearby, workshops were found in which tiled tiles and ceramic products were made. According to scientists, the temple belonged to the Oghuz and was located on the territory of the ancient city. According to one of the participants of that (2000) expedition, Professor Abylai Aidosov, only a small part of the settlement has been discovered so far, and the main part is still under water, writes Kazakhstanskaya Pravda.

Unfortunately, the specialists could not continue the study of the ancient settlement, the expedition worked only one season, and then the money ran out. And here is a new, without exaggeration, sensational discovery. At 20 kilometers from the mentioned mausoleum, hunters from the village of Karateren discovered the ruins of another ancient city on the dry bottom of the sea. According to them, a group of Kyzylorda scientists left the regional center and studied the remains of the settlement for three days. Their conclusions can literally cause confusion among historians and archaeologists.

We know about the existence of Atlantis, unexpectedly gone to the seabed. Until now, her search has not yielded results, and many believe that this is only a legend. But, as it turned out, there were cities similar to Atlantis, and one of them was buried by the waves of the Aral Sea. Employees of the Korkyt-ata State University removed a layer of sand from the surface of some destroyed buildings and found the remains of people and domestic animals randomly located, which indicates that they died at the same time and that there was no one to bury them. The trouble caught people by surprise, no one managed to avoid it. Jugs, iron lamps, coins and other household items were also found at the excavation sites. Everything remained as it was at the time of the death of the city.

According to Professor Abylai Aidosov, the reason for this could be the water that suddenly surrounded the settlement, and people were unable to escape. As you know, the Aral Sea began to fill up again in the XIV century, and it is quite possible that this process proceeded quite quickly.

The well-known historian Z. N. Buniyatov in one of his works "The State of the Khorezmshahs of the Anushtiginids" describes the campaign of the Khorezmshah's troops to the Oghuz cities of Zhent and Zhankent in the Aral Sea region, committed in the 12th century. The army walked along the bottom of the dried up Aral Sea, and the soldiers met several flourishing cities. One of them is Robat-Togan. Perhaps the one found now is the same Robat-Togan, since, according to the description of the chronicler of Khorezmshah, the city was surrounded by a dam in case of water coming. Traces of the dam were discovered by Kyzylorda scientists. Apparently, during the flood period, water approached the city, but then receded, and the inhabitants erected this structure to avoid flooding. In case of a natural disaster, they stocked food (large vessels were found in which grain was stored). They were buried in the ground to a depth of one meter. However, it seems that the last flood was so violent and powerful that it covered the city.

Kazakh scientists now have a unique opportunity to study the life and way of life of our ancestors. After all, this is not a city abandoned by people and not completely destroyed by the conquerors, as all other ancient settlements have come down to us. Here, the waters of the Aral have preserved, including from looting, everything that the ancient people used. But now it is open and not guarded by anyone. And, in our opinion, one should be afraid that lovers of profit will have time to dig in the sand in search of rich burials and gold. Aral Atlantis is a rare gift for our history, and it would be worthwhile to organize the protection of the settlement for a while, while the expedition is organized.