Burana Tower: The Legend of the Khan’s Daughter and the Spider

In the green Chui valley, about an hour east of Bishkek, a lonely brick tower rises from the fields with the snowy mountains behind it. This is Burana, the minaret of the ancient city of Balasagun, built around the 11th century. It was once much taller; earthquakes have shortened it over the centuries. Historians know a lot about the city — but the Kyrgyz prefer to explain the tower with a legend.

The prophecy

A powerful khan had a beautiful daughter whom he loved more than anything in the world. He was old and afraid he would die before he saw her happy, so he called his wise men to tell her future.

The wise men spoke for a long time: no one in the world, they said, would be happier than the khan’s daughter. But then the oldest of them stepped forward.

O lord, have me executed if you wish, but first hear the bitter truth. Your daughter will die from the bite of a karakurt spider before she comes of age.

The khan cursed the prophecy and threw the old man into a deep dungeon. Then he ordered a tower to be built — so tall that it touched the sky — and at the very top, in a small bright room, his daughter went to live. Servants climbed the steep stairs with her food, and checked every dish and every fold of cloth three times for spiders.

The birthday gift

Years passed. The girl turned sixteen and blossomed like a flower, fresh as the morning dew. ‘The prophecy will not come true,’ thought the khan, and he climbed the tower to congratulate her. He brought a large tray of ripe golden grapes and laid it at her feet.

She reached for the heaviest bunch — and cried out. A karakurt had been hiding among the grapes. The princess died that same day, and the old khan, unable to bear his grief, died within the year. Since then the tower has stood alone.

In another version, the khan Baitik conquers the city and kills everyone except one old woman, who curses him: his only daughter will die here from a spider’s bite. He builds the tower and locks his daughter at the top with two servants; food can only be passed up through a door so high that you have to stand on a horse’s saddle to reach it. Again a bunch of grapes is handed up, and again the spider is hiding inside.

Visiting Burana

Today Burana is one of the most rewarding day trips from Bishkek. You can climb the narrow, steep stairs inside the tower to a small platform at the top (not for the claustrophobic!), see the remains of mausoleums and the city walls, and walk among a fascinating open-air collection of balbals — Turkic stone warriors — and stones with petroglyphs gathered from all over the Chui valley. A small museum shows finds from Balasagun.

The site is part of the UNESCO World Heritage ‘Silk Roads: Chang’an–Tianshan Corridor’. Karakurt spiders, by the way, do live in the dry steppes of Central Asia — so the legend’s villain is very real.

Visit

Burana is about 80 km from Bishkek, near Tokmok — a perfect half-day trip, or a stop on the way to Issyk-Kul. More legends and places: the Kyrgyzstan travel guide.