Archaeologists have discovered a flooded medieval city under the waters of a salt lake in northeastern Kyrgyzstan.
This place was an important stop on one of the Silk Road between China and the West in the Middle Ages. But the city there is believed to have been hit by a major earthquake in the 15th century, causing it to sink underwater.
Sunken City
According to Government of KyrgyzstanIssyk-Kul is one of the deepest lakes in the world, with some parts reaching depths of 2,300 feet (700 meters) from the surface. It has no access to the river and is lightly salted.
The researchers examined four flooded areas ranging from 3 to 13 feet (1 to 4 m) deep near the northwestern shore of the lake, the site of a predominantly Muslim settlement called Toru Aigir in the Middle Ages.
“The monument under study is a city or a large commercial agglomeration on one of the important sections of the Silk Road,” archaeologist Valerii Kolchenko– says the message from the head of the Kyrgyz contingent of expedition researchers.
“At the beginning of the 15th century, as a result of a terrible earthquake, the city sank under the waters of the lake… The tragedy can be compared to Pompeii.”
The team discovered the remains of several now-submerged buildings made of kiln-fired brick, including one that contained a millstone – evidence that it had once been a grain mill.
They also discovered collapsed stone structures, wooden beams and the remains of a public building with exterior decoration that may have been a mosque or an Islamic school known as a madrassa.
Medieval Muslim cemetery
At one of the underwater sites, the remains of a Muslim cemetery were discovered, covering an area of approximately 14 acres (6 hectares) – about the size of 11 football fields.
The team recovered the remains of two victims from the cemetery and found that their faces were turned towards Mecca, which is now in Saudi Arabia – a common practice for Muslim burials.
Archaeologists believe the cemetery dates back to around the 13th century, when Islam was brought to the region by the Golden Horde, a Mongol state that ruled much of Central Asia from the 1240s to 1502.
Before this, the region was ruled by the Karakhanids, a Turkic dynasty centered in Kyrgyzstan, since the 10th century, the statement said.
Toru-Aigyr was a multicultural city when it was founded before the 13th century, expedition leader Maxim MenshikovThis is stated in a statement from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “People here professed different religions: pagan Tengrism, Buddhism, Nestorianism,” he said. But the introduction of Islam changed the character of the city, he said, as people preferred to trade with other Muslims.
At another site in the sunken city, several fragments of medieval Muslim pottery were discovered, including a large and intact khum, or water jug, which researchers plan to recover during a future expedition.
Three burials were also found nearby, but these are believed to have been in an earlier non-Islamic cemetery.
The researchers also discovered remains of mud brick buildings and carried out underwater drilling at the sites to take sediment cores that could be used to reconstruct stages of the city's development, the statement said.
