Buzachi Peninsula Deserts

Desert Mausoleums

Fifteen kilometres south-east of Shebir is the Mausoleum of Dosan Tazhiev, co-leader of the Adayev Uprising with Isa Tlenbayuly, whose commemorative statue stands in Fort Shevchenko. He was born in Zhideli and is most famous for beating Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Rukin in Ushauyz, on Kochak Bay’s southern coast. In 1874, he was captured in Sam Sands*, some 35km north of the Uzbek border, and died two years later in prison in Fort Shevchenko. His body was returned to the peninsula, and a mausoleum erected in his memory not long after. Many consider him as the first of Mangystau’s inhabitants to take a stand for independence. Eighteenth-century Sufi saint Beket Ata’s Tobykty underground mosque is 20km to the south-east.

The 14th-century Mausoleum of Kokkumbet lies 17km west of Tazhiev’s, on the outskirts of Tushikuduk village. At roughly 100m², according to satellite images, it’s one of the largest mausoleums in the eastern Caspian region. Its construction features slabs up to one metre in length, earning it the nickname ‘Karatam’ among the local population. While this term lacks a direct translation, it’s meant to convey the mausoleum’s sturdy stone composition.

As per the unconfirmed oral history and local legend, Kokkumbet devoted his life to finding a mythical spring that granted eternal life. Yet, despite his tireless efforts, the spring remained elusive. However, one fateful day, he encountered a blue bird that had been drinking from the very spring he sought. In a moment of revelation, he realised that consuming the bird would bestow upon him the eternal life he craved. With his newfound prize in hand, he hurried back to his village, only to find its men preparing for war. Filled with a sense of duty, he joined their ranks and left the bird behind.

Unaware of the bird’s extraordinary power, Kokkumbet’s wife prepared it as a meal while he was away. She ate the bird and fed the bones to their dog, inadvertently granting them the gift of immortality.

Upon his return from the battlefield, Kokkumbet was dismayed to discover the bird’s fate. Though he longed for the eternal life he had been so close to grasping, it was too late. In the end, he was buried in his homeland, while his wife and dog lived on, forever bound by the mystical power of the blue bird.

* ‘Пески Сам’, when translated directly from the Russian, means ‘Itself Sands’ or ‘Myself Sands’. However, the true origin of this name remains elusive to us.