The ancient settlement "Ayaz-Kala" (4th century)

Ayaz-Kala dates from the fourth century BC and remains a monument of the Zoroastrian era. It stands in the Ellikkala district of Karakalpakstan, twenty kilometres north-east of Toprak-Kala and west of Kyrk-Kyz-Kala, among the shifting sands of the Kyzylkum and the spurs of Sultan-Uvais.

The site was chosen with a calculation that still impresses. The fortress sits on the flat top of a sixty-metre hill; the sheer slopes to the north, west and south defend it on their own. A plateau approaches from the east, but crossing it would take time, so an enemy would be spotted well in advance.

The walls are double, of mud brick, facing the four cardinal points. The outer one, still standing, is ten metres high and about two and a half thick; the inner is slightly smaller. Semicircular towers reinforce them every 11 to 13 metres, and each tower has an inner chamber, most likely for soldiers to rest in or for the watch.

The entrance on the south side is protected by a maze. It has a practical feature too: it was laid out so that the prevailing southerly wind would carry rubbish and dust out of the site. Hence the name — the fortress in the wind.

Another explanation of the name was recorded by the archaeologist S. P. Tolstov. Popular tradition links the fortress with Ayaz, a slave and hero who sought the hand of a princess living in the Kyrk-Kyz fortress with her forty companions. Ayaz is an ancient figure of Central Asian Turkic folklore; a Kazakh tale recorded on the lower Syr Darya connects him with the events said to explain the Aral Sea: water drowned the kingdom of the cruel Fasyl Khan, the sea formed in its place and both great rivers began to flow into it, while Ayaz Khan's people moved to Khorezm and founded a kingdom called Urgench.

At the start of our era new towers were begun on the south and west sides, brick was prepared — and the work was abandoned. Why the inhabitants left is still unclear; excavation turned up quantities of bricks neatly stacked on edge, as though people had stepped away for a day.

From the top the lake of Ayazkol is visible. Its water is so salty that even in summer it looks as if the lake were sealed under ice.