On the steppe near the Syr Darya, the wind itself plays the Korkyt Ata Memorial Complex. Passing through 40 metal pipes inside the monument, it produces a long, haunting sound intended to evoke the kobyz, a traditional bowed instrument closely associated with Korkyt Ata.
The memorial stands in Karmakshy District of Kyzylorda Region, 18 kilometers northwest of the village of Zhosaly. Built in 1980 by architect Bek Ibrayev and physicist and acoustician Sovet Isatayev, the complex was extensively reconstructed in 2014.
Korkyt Ata Memorial Complex
Korkyt Ata, known in other Turkic traditions as Dede Qorqud or Dede Korkut, is a legendary sage, musician, and storyteller. In Kazakh tradition, he is closely associated with the kobyz.
The kobyz, a traditional bowed instrument associated with Korkyt Ata
In 2018, the epic culture, folk tales, and music associated with Korkyt Ata were added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity following a joint nomination by Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. UNESCO describes the tradition as comprising 12 heroic legends and 13 traditional musical compositions passed down through generations.
The Kazakh version of this story has its own landscape: the banks of the Syr Darya.
“According to legend, Korkyt learned that he was destined to die at the age of 40 and set out in search of a place where death could not reach him. He traveled through different lands, but wherever he went, he saw graves,” says journalist and tour guide Mira Zhakibayeva.
Mira Zhakibayeva
Korkyt returned to the Syr Darya and made a kobyz from wood, camel skin, and horsehair. When he played, the world around him seemed to stand still. In folk memory, music became his answer to death: a person cannot live forever, but what they create can outlive them.
The memorial’s architects translated the legend into metal and stone. Four vertical steles resemble a kobyz, while the metal pipes inside sound in the wind, making the monument seem to change its voice with the weather.
Nearby are a museum, an amphitheater, and the so-called Pyramid of Wishes. Visitors circle the structure before entering to make a wish.
The museum offers a closer look at the tradition of the kui. In Kazakh culture, a kui is an instrumental composition traditionally associated with a story, mood, or image. Korkyt is considered one of the earliest figures in the kobyz kui tradition.
The landscape around the memorial preserves much older layers of history.
Archaeological finds from ancient Zhankent
Not far away lies Zhankent, also known as Yangikent, a medieval city in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya. It is closely connected with the history of the Oghuz, a confederation of Turkic tribes that played an important role in Central Asia in the early Middle Ages.
Zhankent stood along routes connecting Central Asia’s agricultural oases with the Eurasian steppe. Archaeological excavations have uncovered residential quarters and evidence of irrigation and metalworking.
“It is difficult to imagine today, but grapes and roses were grown here,” Zhakibayeva says.
Further back in time lies Chirik-Rabat, a fortified settlement dating from the fifth to first centuries BCE, around 300 kilometers southwest of Kyzylorda. It stood on the left bank of the Zhanadarya, an ancient channel in the Syr Darya system that has since dried up.
The region formed part of the wider Saka-Massagetae world of ancient Central Asia, known through both archaeological discoveries and ancient written sources.
The scale of Chirik-Rabat can still be imagined from its surviving earthworks. Multiple defensive lines protected the ancient fortress. Archaeologists have uncovered burial mounds, mausoleums, mud-brick structures, and several types of burials. The site was reoccupied in the medieval period.
“First come the ancient settlements and defensive structures of Chirik-Rabat. Then Zhankent, a medieval city on the trade routes where the interests of the nomadic and settled worlds intersected,” Zhakibayeva explained. “And finally, Korkyt Ata, representing not so much an archaeological era as a cultural memory preserved through music, legends, and spiritual heritage. Yet all three places are connected by the Syr Darya.”
The river ties this history together better than any museum chronology could. As its channels shifted, some settlements disappeared and others emerged, while roads and trade routes moved with them. Chirik-Rabat left behind its earthen fortifications and Zhankent its archaeological ruins, while the story of Korkyt survived through music and legend.
A statue of Korkyt Ata in the museum
Korkyt is said to have searched in vain for a place where death could not reach him. He never found it. But centuries later, his name is still spoken, his music is still performed, and his story is still told. Perhaps the immortality he sought was not the kind he had been looking for.
