The blue gateway
A tall portal of blue tiles.
Roland Lin — CC BY-SA 3.0 igo · Tim Williams — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Roland Lin — CC BY-SA 3.0 igo · Roland Lin — CC BY-SA 3.0 igo · Tim Williams — CC BY-SA 3.0
The Najm ad-Din Kubra Mausoleum is a group of tombs in the centre of the modern town of Konye-Urgench in northern Turkmenistan, set within a Muslim cemetery. It draws many visitors, and two other historic mausoleums stand beside it. Najm ad-Din Kubra was born in Khiva in 1145 and died in 1221. He founded the Kubrawiya Sufi order, which was influential under the Ilkhanate and the Timurids, and was called the «maker of saints» for the many writers and mystics he taught. His mausoleum was built in the first half of the 14th century. You enter through a tall gateway decorated with blue tiles into a brick building topped with ribbed domes. Opposite stands the mausoleum of Sultan Ali, a 16th-century ruler, a hexagonal building with a dome 9.5 metres across. To the west is the mausoleum of Piryar Vali, a contemporary of Najm ad-Din Kubra, from the 13th and 14th centuries. This is a religious site, so dress modestly, take off your shoes where asked, and keep your voice low. It is about 2.4 km in a straight line from the Il Arslan Mausoleum in the Old Urgench site.
A tall portal of blue tiles.
A hexagonal building with a wide dome.
Brick domes over the tombs.
Central Konye-Urgench, Dashoguz, Turkmenistan
A Khwarazmian Sufi who founded the Kubrawiya order, born 1145, died 1221.
Modest dress, shoes off where asked, and quiet voices.
