Big Guldursun

Big Guldursun is located 35 km east of the district center Boston (Ellik-kala district) and 20 km east of the Beruni district. The monument was first excavated from 1937-40 by Y.G.Gulomov and O.T.Dospanov from 1987 untill 1995. Subsequently, a number of numerous articles and a separate book called “Ayemgi Guldursun qalasi” were published. (Dospanov, 1993.) The monument is one of the largest border fortresses of Ancient Khorezm Empire during IV-I centuries BC., I-VIII AD., and IX-XIV AD. The outer walls were built on the basis of a desolate ancient fortress once conquered by the Arab troops. It is has a form of a rectangle with a total area of 350х230 meters, strictly oriented with corners to the cardinal points. There is a preserved medieval gate of a semi-oval shape in the middle of the south-eastern wall. The early antique walls were made of raw bricks measuring 40х40х10- 11 cm, stacked on the lower pakhsa blocks. The walls have survived to a height of 15 meters. The inner parts of the walls are medieval, made of bricks of 24х24х5cm and are closely attached to the ancient walls. During the rebuilding of the fortresses in the time of Khorezmshalhs’ reign, the inner part of the walls of the ancient shooting gallery was demolished. At present, the interior of the ancient walls has preserved traces of rifle loopholes arranged in two rows in a checkerboard pattern. In some places in the pakhsa wall, you can see the clogged, high-altitude arched passages. The fortress was reinforced by the construction of a pretented barrier with a second row of outrigger towers flanking the approach to the wall, and for this reason they form a so-called “gateway structure” along the entire diameter of semicircular (semi-oval) planes. Excavations and research have shown that the fortress played a purely strategic role and was of great importance in the defense of the head structures of the ancient Gaukhare canal. During the study of the monument, a deep pit was dug in the inner part, up to 14 meters deep. The analysis and the materials revealed showed that the inner part of the monument was intensively settled down at all times of its existence. The monument is very interesting architecturally. The “kaptar khana” (room for keeping pigeons) is perfectly preserved in the inner eastern wall. In the scientific literature, it has been written about such "dovecotes" on some medieval monuments in this area. And also, this information gives reason to assume that carrier pigeons were used to maintain connections between fortresses, cities and individual regions. For this reason, it is no coincidence that a special room was allocated for keeping pigeons, consisting of special niches, deepened in several rows, arranged between the shooting gallery of the eastern wall. Its eastern and southern corner towers, which were used in the Middle Ages as a warehouse for storing cotton seeds, are of no less architectural and material interest. For proper preservation of seeds on the floor, special “air vents” were used - ventilation holes on the floor, which could actively ventilate the stored seeds.