The "Bolshoy Guldursun" Fortress (2nd–1st century)

Great Guldursun is one of the largest frontier fortresses of ancient Khorezm. It stands twenty-six kilometres from Turtkul in Karakalpakstan and spans the second and first centuries BC to the thirteenth AD.

The fortress is four-sided, covering thirty-five hectares in all. It was first built in antiquity but destroyed around the fifth century. Much later, in the medieval period, a new fortress was raised on the same ground, with double walls and loopholed towers. Archaeologists have found coins, ceramics, bronze work and ornaments of both eras here.

A well-known legend of a siege attaches to the place. The town held out, the people shut themselves in and waited for the besiegers to leave — while the besiegers waited for the defenders to weaken. The padishah's daughter, named Guldursun, watched from the walls and fell in love with the enemy commander. Seeing that he was about to withdraw, she sent word by a messenger that there was no food left in the town and that one more day would bring its surrender. Whether any of it is true is unknown, but the name stuck to the fortress.

What remains today are huge walls, hardened to stone by time — and the scale alone shows what this fortress meant to the Khorezmian frontier.