Dzhetyasar culture

Seven (a lot of) fortresses) is a group of settlements (possibly up to 100) belonging from the end of the 1st millennium BC - 8th century AD.

The majority of the settlements are located between 45 – 90 km south of the modern city of Baikonur and the village of Dzhusaly in the Kyzylorda region of Kazakhstan.

An important caravan route from the Tien Shan Mountains to Itil in the Volga estuary passed through the Dzhetyasar settlement area.

The tells (mounds of settlement debris) rise two to ten meters above the surrounding plain.

All settlements of the Dzhetyasar culture are located at the ancient river course, and they are well fortified, with one or more two- to three-storey towers each – apparently like community buildings.