Taraz

• Ta­raz Ka­zakh­stan ci­ty po­pula­ti­on — 315,000 (2006);
• Ta­raz Ka­zakh­stan ci­ty pho­ne co­de — +7–7262;
• Ta­raz Ka­zakh­stan ci­ty pos­tal co­des — 080001–080019.

Ta­raz (for­merly Ta­las, Zham­byl, Dzam­bul and Aulie-Ata) is a ci­ty and ca­pital of Zham­byl ob­last (so­ut­hern Ka­zakh­stan). Ta­raz li­es at the junc­ti­on of the Ta­las Ri­ver and the Turk-Sib Ra­il­way. Ta­raz is one of the ol­dest towns in Ka­zakh­stan.

Ta­raz stands on the si­te of the an­ci­ent ci­ty of Ta­raz, which flo­uri­shed as a stop along the Silk Ro­ad from Euro­pe to Chi­na un­til it was dest­ro­yed by Mon­gol ar­mi­es in the 13th cen­tu­ry. A new town cal­led Aulie-Ata was es­tabli­shed on the si­te by the emirs of Ko­kand in the la­te 18th cen­tu­ry. The fort and town we­re cap­tu­red by the Rus­si­ans in 1864, and in 1938 the town was re­named af­ter the Ka­zakh po­et Jam-bul Ja­ba­yev (Rus­si­an: Dzham­bul Dzha­ba­yev; 1846–1945).

The­re are ins­ti­tuti­ons for tra­ining te­ac­hers, fo­od and light-in­dust­ry tech­ni­ci­ans, and ir­ri­gati­on en­gi­ne­ers in Ta­raz. Ta­raz al­so has a mu­se­um and two the­aters.

Ta­raz is a go­od pla­ce to stop for a day tra­veling bet­we­en Tash­kent and Al­ma­ty. The­re are num­ber of ni­ce ma­uso­le­ums of 9–12 cen­tu­ri­es in­si­de and aro­und the Ta­raz ci­ty of Ka­zakh­stan. The well-known one is Ais­ha Bi­bi ma­uso­le­um. 12th cen­tu­ry’s Ais­hai-Bi­bi ma­uso­le­um lo­cated 18 km west of Ta­raz ci­ty. It ob­ta­ined the sta­tus of UNES­CO-pro­tec­ted arc­hi­tec­tu­ral mo­nument be­ca­use of pic­tu­res­que fret­work, which co­vers the who­le bu­il­ding. 11th cen­tu­ry Ba­bad­ja-Kha­tun is the on­ly ma­uso­le­um in Cent­ral Asia with 16-rib umb­rel­la sha­ped do­me. Ara­bic no­te on the wall sa­ys: «The wo­man from the co­unt­ry of Ba­bad­ji».