Turkistan (, Türkıstan) is a city and the administrative center of Turkistan Region of Kazakhstan, near the Syr Darya river. It is situated north-west of Shymkent on the Trans-Aral Railway between Kyzylorda to the north and Tashkent to the south. Its population has increased within ten years from to Turkistan's most prominent historical and cultural asset is the Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city is served by Hazrat Sultan International Airport. In 2021, Turkistan was proclaimed by the Organization of Turkic States as "Spiritual Capital of the Turkic World". In the same year, Turkistan was named as one of the top ten tourist destinations in Kazakhstan. History Turkistan is one of Kazakhstan's historic cities with an archaeological record dating back to the 4th century. It became a commercial centre after the final demise of Otrar, the medieval city whose ruins lie near the Syr Darya to the southeast. Throughout most of the medieval and early-modern period it was known as Iasy or Shavgar and after the 16th-17th centuries as Turkistan or Hazrat, both of which names derive from the title 'Hazrat-i Turkistan', which literally means "the Saint (or Blessed One) of Turkistan" and refers to Khoja Akhmet Yassawi, the Sufi Sheikh of Turkistan, who lived here during the 11th century and is buried in the town. Because of his influence and in his memory, the city became an important centre of spirituality and Islamic learning for the peoples of the Kazakh steppes. In the 1390s, Turco-Mongol warlord and the founder of the Timurid dynasty Timur erected a magnificent domed Mazar or tomb over his grave, which remains the most significant architectural monument in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It was pictured on the back of the banknotes of the national currency until 2006. Other important historical sites in the city include a medieval bath-house and four other mausoleums, one dedicated to Rabiya Sultan Begim, who was Timur's great granddaughter, and three to Kazakh khans (rulers). Before the Russians came in the 19th century, Turkistan lay on the frontier of the settled Perso-Islamic oasis culture of Transoxiana to the south, and the world of the Kazakh steppes to the north. In the 16th to 18th centuries, Turkistan became the capital of the Kazakh Khanate. It became the political center of the Kazakh steppe, but after advancing conquest expeditions of the Russian Empire and the associated weakening