Otrar

Otrar stood near the Arys and Syr Darya in southern Central Asia, where irrigation sustained an oasis city between settled agricultural districts and the steppe. Its trading routes connected the oasis with other centres across Transoxiana and beyond. The seizure of a Mongol caravan and the ensuing siege in the early thirteenth century became famous episodes in the Mongol conquest.

The city continued after that upheaval. Archaeological remains include a mosque, palace and fortified gate of the Timurid period, and coins and houses show activity into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Timur died at Otrar in 1405 while preparing a campaign eastward. The settlement eventually declined and was abandoned in the eighteenth century.