Talgar Settlement, a medieval Silk Road town on the edge of modern Talgar

Talgar Settlement, also known as Talkhiz or Talkhir, is the site of a medieval Silk Road town at the southern edge of present-day Talgar, about 27 km in a straight line from Almaty. What survives is an earthwork: a rampart, a ditch and low stone wall fragments, not standing buildings. It suits a half-day trip for travellers who care about Silk Road history more than about dramatic ruins.

What Talgar Settlement is and what is left to see

Talgar Settlement is the outline of a fortified medieval town, and the visible remains are modest. The site sits in the foothills of the Ile-Alatau, on the right bank of the Talgar River, next to the southern outskirts of the town of Talgar in Almaty Region. The fortified core stands on raised ground, and its rampart and moat still trace the old walls. In the suburb outside the wall, only fragments of stone walls rise above the ground.

The table sets expectations: this is a large archaeological field with a mountain backdrop. If you expect walls and towers like those of the cities on the southern Silk Road, you will be disappointed.

Why a small town here mattered on the Silk Road

Talkhiz was a craft and trade centre that linked the Ili valley with China, Iran, India and Japan. It grew up at the end of the 8th century on the site of an earlier Wusun settlement, at the junction of the Ili and Chu valleys. The Persian geography Hudud al-Alam of 982 lists it as a large town.

Sources differ slightly on the golden age: Russian Wikipedia gives the 11th to early 13th century, Kazakh Wikipedia the 10th to 13th. Most people were Turkic, mainly Karluks, with Sogdian settlers, and Buddhists and Nestorian Christians lived here too. Many residents could write in both Arabic and Old Turkic script. The town was known for ironwork, including damask steel, and for basma, a technique of embossing metal with dies.

How the town was laid out

The fortified core is a near-square with its corners pointing roughly to the cardinal directions. Its walls measure 300 m on the north-east, 280 m on the north-west and 302 m on each of the other two sides, about 1.2 km in total. Towers guarded the corners and walls, gates faced each other in the middle of each side, and two streets crossing between them split the town into four quarters.

Homes were multi-room courtyard houses with stone footings and upper walls of Tien Shan spruce, heated by tandyr ovens, with a pen for livestock in the yard. Archaeologists found yurt bases inside some courtyards, a trace of nomadic habits. The town had at least 60 closed residential quarters, or mahallas, of 6 to 15 houses each, plus cobbled streets, water pipes, sewers and public baths.

Where the finds from Talgar are kept

The best-known find from Talgar Settlement is in Almaty, not on site. The best-known find, a 12th–13th century copper dish with winged sphinxes and running animals, is shown at the Central State Museum of Kazakhstan. Digs also turned up glazed pottery, clay toys, weapons, glass vessels and jewellery, and a collection of imported bronze mirrors is also known. Coin blanks suggest the town had its own mint. Imports included Chinese porcelain bowls, Japanese and Sogdian ceramics, Persian bronze jugs and Indian bone chess pieces.

Pairing the site with a museum visit in Almaty gives the earthworks their context. We could not confirm which of these pieces are on display now.

Who dug here, and where the sources disagree

Excavation dates depend on which source you read. Russian Wikipedia says the first digs were led by V. D. Gorodetsky in 1921 and 1924, followed by A. N. Bernshtam in the late 1930s, with the most productive work starting in 1977 under T. V. Savelyeva. Kazakh Wikipedia says systematic excavation only began in 1955 under I. I. Kopylov. It adds that from 1994 archaeologists from the USA, Germany, Japan and Israel joined Kazakh teams. In the 19th century, travellers and scholars such as Semenov-Tyan-Shansky, Chokan Valikhanov, Przhevalsky and Barthold visited the ruins.

Protection problems you may notice

Talgar Settlement has had a troubled recent history, and the setting may not feel pristine. After the Soviet Union broke up, a cottage settlement went up right next to the ruins, and by Wikipedia the site was long unfenced, used for grazing and dumping rubbish. In 2012, days after a newspaper article on its condition, vandals damaged some restored interiors. The site was fenced only after the UNESCO listing in 2014, and in 2018 activists still called its protection inadequate. A plan to run a road to the Ak Bulak ski resort across the site was dropped in autumn 2016.

We could not confirm the current state of fencing, signage or any visitor facilities.

Getting there from Almaty and combining it with other sites

The settlement is a short trip from Almaty: about 27 km in a straight line, at the southern edge of Talgar. We could not confirm road routes, public transport or whether there is a car park, so a traveller without a car or Russian should plan a taxi and check the exact entrance point first. It can be paired with another early history stop nearby. The Issyk kurgan of the Golden Man lies about 20 km in a straight line away. For mountain scenery the same day, see nature near Almaty. Talgar Peak, the highest point of the Ile-Alatau, is a separate trip altogether.

When to visit Talgar Settlement

Late spring to early autumn works best, with June and September the most comfortable. The figures below are computed ERA5 reanalysis normals for 2011–2020 at a grid point at 1,099 m, not a weather station.

July is the warmest month, with average highs near 26°C and lows around 16°C. April and May are the wettest months at roughly 120–140 mm each, so expect muddy ground on an open earthwork. From December to February, average highs hover around or below freezing and nights drop to about -8 to -10°C. In winter the mounds may be under snow and hard to read. September brings highs near 21°C and less rain than spring.

Which sites are on the UNESCO list and which are not yet is explained in the Silk Road in Kazakhstan.