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www.sairamtour.comThe highway leading from Urgench north to Karakalpakstan, runs along one of the trails which camel-driven caravans used to take a few millennia ago, traveling through the wilderness of the plateau Ustyurt to Caspian steppes and further to the Volga river. Here, on the Ustyurt plateau there have survived remains of old caravanserais, which once served night's lodging for tired merchants and cameleers.
The highway runs across the bridge over one of the longest Central Asian rivers – the river Amudarya or Oxus as the antique geographers called it. On the right bank of the river travelers enter the desert landscapes of Ellikala District, with barrows and ruins of ancient fortresses looming in the distance. Two thousands years ago this land was part of the powerful Khorezm State, one of the oldest in the world. The name Ellikala meaning "fifty fortresses" testifies to the fact that in the ancient times there prospered many fortress towns here. Altogether there are over 400 antique and early medieval monuments in Karakalpakstan. This "land of ancient irrigation" still attracts scholars and tourists by its antique fortresses Ayaz-Kala, Kyrk-Kyz, Burgun-Kala, Dev-Kala, Teshik-Kala, Toprak-Kala, Koy-Krylgan-Kala complex, and many others.
One hundred and sixty kilometers northward from Urgench the highway goes up to the ancient site Janbas-Kala – one of the most remarkable Central Asian antique monuments. The site dates back to the 4th century B. C., to so called "Kanguy" period in the history of ancient Khorezm. Janbas-Kala was the outermost north-eastern fortress town, almost on the border between the "land of ancient irrigation" on the right bank of the Oxus river and the nomadic steppes. The fortress was built on a barren upland which closes a chain of hills stretching south-east from the Sultanuizdag mountains.
The Jambas-Kala extant strong fortification walls in its plan make a rectangle of 3.5 hectares in area with the angles being strictly oriented towards east, west, north and south. Covered with sand dunes at some places, these double, five-metre-thick walls reach 10 metres in height. Between the outer and inner walls of the fortress there is a 3-meter-wide passageway. The lower part of the walls, up to the level of the embrasures, is wattle and daub with streaks of brickwork; above the walls are made of adobe bricks with the dimensions of their sides being 40x40 centimeters.
Around the whole periphery the outer walls of the fortress have two staggered rows of arrow-shaped embrasures. Between the rows, from inside, there were built wide ledges for the defenders to stand on. The narrow 20-centimeter-wide embrasures were specially designed to shoot arrows at the foot of walls, almost vertically downwards. Therefore the bottom of the embrasures has steep slopes facing outside. The famous Russian historian and archeologist S.Tolstov, who was the first to research into Jambas-Kala, wrote that the arrow-shaped embrasures of the fortress traced back to Assyrian traditions which were in use throughout the times of the Ahemenid and Parthian Iran, but were not found in the Sassanid epoch. The scientist stated that the embrasures of Asur of the Sargon period were identical to those of Janbas-Kala and of other fortresses of Kanguy-Kushan period.
Janbas-Kala residents professed Zoroastrianism, one of the world's oldest religions. Zoroastrianism was spread for more than a thousand years over a huge area between Khorezm and India, and Xinjiang and the Middle East. Across from the gate, at the other end of the town, there were found the ruins of a fire temple. The temple was the center of the town's spiritual life. There still remains an oval pedestal, on which the holy fire in a metal altar used to burn day and night, as was required by the Zoroastrian religious rituals. Along the wall there is a partly-ruined long stone bench for the priests who were to keep the eternal fire by feeding it with fruit tree twigs. It was the place where they performed the fire purification ceremony and sang Avesta hymns.
At the foot of Janbas-Kala, among sand dunes, there are pitched nomadic tents – yurts. It is the place where travelers can find lodging and rest in the shade on ayvan platforms under reed shelters, where they will be treated to rich shurpa soup and refreshing tea with Asian sweets. After sunset on the endless night sky there appear myriads of unbelievably bright stars. And when the moon lights up above the ancient fortress, the eternal fire of Janbas-Kala seems to be still shimmering in the ruins of the temple. And there comes the feeling of the eternal universe.
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