Submerged Silk Road City in Kyrgyzstan Yields New Clues to Turu-Aygyr’s Past
Beneath the cold waters of Lake Issyk-Kul in Kyrgyzstan, archaeologists are piecing together the history of Turu-Aygyr, a medieval trading center that vanished after an earthquake in the early 15th century. The joint mission, led by the Russian Geographical Society, the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic, is now working across four underwater sites near the lake’s northwest shore.
Turu-Aygyr once occupied a strategic position on the ancient Silk Road, linking China with the West during a long period of exchange that stretched from the 1st century BCE to the 14th and 15th centuries CE. According to Valery Kolchenko, who heads the Kyrgyz contingent, the city may already have been partly abandoned when the earthquake struck, but the disaster still marked a decisive break in the region’s history. In its aftermath, medieval settlers gave way to nomadic populations.
The site’s underwater remains are beginning to sketch that transition in detail. At one location, researchers have identified baked-brick walls, a millstone, and a decorated architectural fragment that suggests the complex may have included a mosque, bathhouse, or madrasa. Nearby, they found stone-and-wood structures, and hope that wood samples will help determine the earthquake’s exact date.
A second site has produced a Muslim necropolis, with burials laid on their right sides and oriented toward Mecca, in keeping with Islamic practice. Because Islam became widespread in Central Asia in the 13th century, the burial ground is likely from that period. Two sets of remains have been removed for further study, offering a rare chance to reconstruct how people in Turu-Aygyr lived.
Maksim Menshikov, a researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences and head of the mission, said the team is also comparing its findings with Chinese chronicles, especially Tang dynasty accounts that describe the region as an area of interest. That historical record may help align written sources with the archaeology now emerging from the lake floor.
Elsewhere in the survey area, archaeologists have documented medieval ceramics and the remains of rounded and rectangular structures. More excavation seasons will be needed to understand how these fragments fit together, but the work is already restoring a lost Silk Road city to view, one layer at a time.
