Guldursun Kala

History

Guldursun is one of the biggest fortresses in Khorezm, its walls running for almost a kilometre around an interior of about 6.4 hectares. Its earliest layers are dated to the 2nd–1st centuries BCE, though other accounts have it built in the 7th–8th centuries CE on older foundations. Abandoned for unknown reasons in the 5th century, it was rebuilt in the first half of the 12th and became a key strongpoint on the Khorezmshahs’ steppe frontier. Rectangular in plan, it had two lines of rammed-earth walls with towers and arrow slits, and in places the mud-brick walls still stand up to 15 metres high.

The Mongols destroyed it utterly in the early 13th century. Excavations have uncovered houses, pottery and copper coins.

The legend

Legend has it that besiegers could not take the fortress until Princess Guldursun opened the gates to her lover, a Kalmyk warrior. In the rest of the tale the ruler’s daughter pays dearly for her betrayal, while the fortress keeps her name forever.