Shopan-ata mosque

Shopan Ata Mosque and complex – a historic-complex monument entered in the State List of Republican significance historical and cultural monuments.

Research

The underground complex was studied in 1951-1952 by the Architectural Art Models Research Expedition led by M.M. Mengdikulov, and in 1977-1978 by an expedition organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Kazakh SSR, in 1982 by a team led by S.E. Ajigali of the Society for the Protection of Monuments, and later in 2004 by the Mangystau MTMK MM.

Complex description

The underground mosque is a complex located in the southern region of Mangystau, along the ancient Khwarezm caravan route. According to its structure, a large room with a vaulted ceiling faces northeast, and a small room is built on the right side, with a high floor. Under the left wall a special niche was carved for placing a tomb. There is a door leading upward from the vaulted ceiling. In front of the door is a tomb chamber whose face is covered with a towel. According to legend, the daughter of Shopan Ata is buried there. The mosque roof is in the form of a stone dome. Water channels were made along the dome, and at their intersection cavities with a capacity of 10-15 cubic meters were dug to collect water. The water collected there supplied the mosque inhabitants throughout the year. There is also a well at the lower part of the mosque. At the entrance of the mosque, on the left side, there are rooms measuring 4 square meters each, recessed from the surface. In front of them a wooden pole is planted. The mosque walls have no significant decorative patterns. According to oral legend, the construction period of the mosque corresponds to the time when Oghuz tribes began to come to Mangystau.

Mosque description

Shopan Ata underground mosque – the only sacred place for a Muslim child in the Mangystau region, located 42 km northeast of the village of Kyzylsay in the area called Kyzylsu on the southern side of the Tüyesu swamp, in the southeastern part of the peninsula.

The central part of the mosque is a spacious room‑type “hanaka” with a right‑angled size of 7.1×5.1 m, built comfortably for waiting guests. The comfortable staircase at the southwest corner of the central large room has now become a flat ramp. This passage rises upward and leads to the prayer area and to a two‑chamber burial room. Because the rounded western wall of the prayer room is damaged, it is difficult to determine whether it was once completely closed or entirely open.

According to local legend, the burial chamber of Shopan-ata himself is a significantly recessed rock‑cut niche, small but like a domed room. It was once whole, but now through a collapsed corridor one can reach the second burial chamber located at the northwest corner of the mosque, the place where Shopan-ata’s daughter is placed. Here, along the southern and western walls of the main central large room, two spacious rooms have been built for pilgrims and visitors. Along the north wall, dishes – cauldrons, pots, kettles, basins and other household items – are placed. The interiors of these rooms are designed so that during daytime light enters through a hole in the ceiling, 1.2 m in diameter, located at the central point of the room’s roof and slightly off‑center. Near the mouth of this light‑entering hole a wooden cross is placed, bound with torn cloths and ram horns in a tape‑like fashion, and one end of the cross protrudes more than 1 m outward. The place where this cross stands is considered the most sacred spot.

Adjacent to the east side of the central large hall, a mosque room with a door opening and windows is located. It can be observed that the north wall of the mosque has begun to crack and crumble due to wind and rain. From all sides of the stone wall in the complex, it is also impossible to notice any rough construction or any decorative element, however, this situation itself fits the altar and, according to the request of the dervishes, seems suitable for Shopan-ata as well. As observed, the later built structure is a freestanding mosque with its own entrance and it was erected to the east of the first one. Its worship hall is also located at an angle. The mihrab is oriented to the south. The mosque door, facing north, is near a sacred fir tree that grew in a shady place to provide relief from the summer heat, towards the burial chamber. Slightly below the mosque entrance there is a fresh water basin. Further east along the shore, the stone wall contains several more burial chambers dug into the ground.

This underground complex has been a pilgrimage site for the nomadic people of Mangystau for centuries. The Shopan-ata shrine may be the largest, perhaps the most ancient complex in Mangystau. Along the road to the shrine, on the east side of the complex, there are monuments of a massive reservoir built from laterite stone, and in the southwest part there are burial monuments from the X-XIII centuries built by the ancient Oghuz, later Kipchak tribes that roamed this region. In this row, although they appear simple, stone enclosures and domeless shrines – saqanatams and sintonas – are dominated by stone slabs and stone benches.