Kazakhstan · Zhambyl Oblysy
Where to Stay in Taraz, Zhambyl Oblysy
Taraz is a city of southern Kazakhstan, one of the oldest in Central Asia, an ancient Silk Road town on the Talas river near the great tomb of Aisha Bibi.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Taraz
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Taraz turns on the city centre or the tombs. The streets around the bazaar keep the mausoleum, the market, and the shops within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the city. The bazaar fills the centre.
Brick tombs stand among the streets. Out toward Aisha Bibi and the plain, the town gives way to fields, villages, and the old tombs. A room out of town trades the streets for the terracotta tomb, the quiet fields, and the mountains to the south.
The steppe runs flat beyond. Stay downtown for the bazaar, or out for the tombs. Taraz keeps its centre a short drive from the outlying tombs.
About Taraz
Taraz is the ancient Silk Road city of the Talas.
What is Taraz known for?
On the Talas river in the far south of Kazakhstan, it was known in old days as Talas, and it keeps the exquisite terracotta tomb of Aisha Bibi in the fields nearby, the brick mausoleum of a Karakhanid ruler in the town, the memory of a great battle where papermaking passed to the west, and a busy bazaar on the old caravan road. The dry steppe runs around. The mountains rise to the south.
What are the main landmarks in Taraz?
The tomb of Aisha Bibi is the wonder of Taraz. The small domed tomb of carved terracotta, its walls patterned in a thousand tiles like lace, stands in the fields west of the city, the emblem of the region, on the plain. A mausoleum stands in town.
The brick tomb of the Karakhan ruler rises among the streets, while the old bazaar, the battle ground of the Talas, and the town museum mark the country around Taraz.
What is the history of Taraz?
Taraz is one of the oldest cities of the steppe. A town stood on the Talas two thousand years ago, on the great Silk Road that carried trade between China and the west, and it grew rich on the caravans that passed through. Nearby a great battle was fought.
On the Talas the armies of the Arabs and the Tang emperors clashed in the eighth century, and the Arabs won, and it is said that from the prisoners of that day the secret of making paper passed west into the Muslim world. The city flourished under the Karakhanids. In the middle ages Taraz was a rich Silk Road city of the Turkic Karakhanid rulers, who raised fine brick mausoleums, among them the exquisite tomb of Aisha Bibi in the fields outside.
Mongols and time undid it. The Mongols and later wars ruined old Taraz, and the town shrank and rose again under many names, until it grew into a city of the Kazakh south once more. The old tombs still stand.
Taraz keeps its mausoleums and its bazaar on the Talas.
Where is Taraz?
Taraz lies in the far south of Kazakhstan, on the Talas river near the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. The city stands on the edge of the steppe where the plain rises toward the high Tian Shan ranges, watered by the Talas flowing down from the hills, with dry grassland spreading north and snowy peaks to the south. The steppe runs flat to the north.
Green fields line the river.
What is the climate of Taraz?
Taraz has a hot-summer continental climate. Hot dry summers and cold winters cross the southern steppe, with strong summer heat and snow and frost in the winter months. The summer bakes the steppe.
Snow lies on the winter plain.
How do you get to Taraz?
Taraz lies in southern Kazakhstan, on the road and rail between Shymkent and Bishkek. Trains and the highway run to it along the steppe from Shymkent and the Kyrgyz border, and roads run out to the old tombs. Lanes ring the bazaar.
Shymkent lies west along the steppe.
Good for
Updated August 2026