Ancient settlement of Zhankala (Zhent)

The component is located on the southern side of Zhanadarya River approximately in 115 km west from the city Kyzylorda – administrative centres of the region, and 6 km from the flow of Zhanadarya River.

Like most of the medieval settlement the component has the citadel, shahristan and rabad. The citadel in the form of the square of 75x75 m is represented by several elements – palace surrounded with the wall and the north-eastern corner tower) that has 1 m in width. The central building of the citadel has the size of 37x28 m. The outer wall was surrounded with a moat 4 to 20 m in width. The shakhristan of the settlement is surrounded by a wall of 5 m in width and covers the area of 23 ha. Directions of shakhristan walls repeat directions of the walls of the citadel. On its territory, there are several major sites. Two of them can be identified as the caravanserais of 19x19 and 17x17 m in size. The rabad of the settlement has the size 1800 m from the west to the east and 1500 m from the north to the south. Around the settlement there is also a significant area covered with the fields and canals with numerous branches, religious buildings, residential estates, public facilities and small houses. Many of them can be identified by the low elevations and concentrations of the ceramic fragments.

Following the results of the archaeological expedition of 1960-1970s lead by S.P. Tolstov, most of the researchers involved agreed that the ancient settlement of Zhankala could by directly or indirectly associated with the historical city of Zhent. The numismatic materials found on the territory of component demonstrate its close culture and trading interchanges with the regions of Central Asia and the Middle East, China, India and Europe.