THE BABA-ATA MOSQUE-MAUSOLEUM

The Baba-Ata mosque-mausoleum (Kazakh: Baba ata meshit-kesenesi) is an architectural monument located in the village of Babaata in the Suzak District of the Turkestan Region, on the left bank of the Babaata River. The local population associates the name of the monument with the Islamic preacher Iskak-ata, who lived here in the 14th century. The existing structure was built in the 19th century on the site of a destroyed medieval building. In 1982, the Baba-Ata mausoleum was included in the list of historical and cultural monuments of republican significance of the Kazakh SSR and was taken under state protection.

The building is constructed of square baked bricks using a lime-alabaster mortar. In its volumetric-planning structure and overall composition, the mausoleum reflects the architectural principles of the famous Khoja Ahmed Yasawi mausoleum complex in Turkestan.

The structure is double-domed, with a stepped корпус that reveals the internal spatial organization and features a wide projecting portal section. The dominant element is the mosque volume, covered by a sphero-conical dome set on an octagonal drum.

The main façade is emphasized by a monumental portal, with three-quarter corner towers and three-tiered wall sections between the pylons. The longitudinal-axial layout consists of the mosque hall, the burial chamber with an adjacent memorial room covered by a barrel vault, and auxiliary rooms located within the pylons. In the interiors of the mosque and the burial chamber, there are arched niches along the axes of the square-plan rooms, as well as arched pendentives filled with a cellular console structure. The walls are plastered and whitewashed. The mihrab niche is decorated with panels, vegetal paintings in the “kyrma” technique, and Arabic epigraphy.