Yangikent

Yangikent, the “New Town” also known as Jankent, stood on the lower Syr Darya east of the Aral Sea. Arab geographers of the tenth century described it as the seat of the Oghuz yabghu, ruler of a federation of Turkic peoples. Its position connected the steppe with Khwarazm and the routes leading toward the Volga and Central Asia.

The settlement was already inhabited in the sixth century. In the late ninth century it was rebuilt as a walled town, its plan showing the influence of Khwarazmian urban traditions. Inside the walls stood a citadel and residential quarters, while crafts and commerce brought together settled inhabitants and the surrounding pastoral world. Yangikent eventually declined and was abandoned; the changing courses of the river and shifts in political and commercial life have all been considered possible factors in its disappearance.