Dev-Kesken

Dev-Kesken, or Dev Kesken qala, is an archaeological site in the Dashoguz region of northern Turkmenistan, 62 km west of Koneurgench. Its name means the "castle carved out by demons". It is located on a 30 or 40 km-long peninsula of the Ustyurt Plateau that is part of the Karakum Desert, surrounded by a vast and bleak wilderness. It cannot be reached from the main road and the area itself requires an escort from soldiers at a local checkpoint. Dev-Kesken, specifically, is the remains of a citadel (a fortified town) within the larger site of the ruined city of Vazir. Little is known about Vazir's early history, but the ruins collectively date back to the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE.

Site description

Dev-Kesken is part of the larger archaeological complex of Vazir which is best described as having an upper town and a lower town. To the South-West corner of upper town are the ruins of a large, rectangular citadel. Roughly 100 meters in size, Dev-Kesken is an unfired mud brick castle that looks almost as if it is part of its surrounding landscape. The walls of the citadel have regularly spaced rectangular towers with two square towers at the corners. Topping these walls are also fluted pilasters, or fluted rectangular columns that are ejecting from the wall. Between the walls were, at one time, two galleries - a lower and an upper with loopholes for archers along the wall and in the towers. Sometime later the loopholes along the upper gallery were filled and new outer walls were added. New semicircular towers were also added to the citadel at a later point in time. Dev-Kesken fell into decay roughly at the beginning of 4th century A.D.

History of Dev-Kesken

First settled between 4th or 3rd century BCE, little is known about the history of Dev-Kesken. It was eventually abandoned, supposedly after it entered a time of environmental and social change. The already arid desert climate worsened as the levels of nearby rivers lowered and even the Aral Sea had contracted into a series of pools. Later in time, people of the nearby city Gurganji supposedly dammed what may have been a crucial river to the city of Visar. This may have also affected the climate of the region. Evidence from the local archaeological record suggests that other nearby rivers flowing into the Sarykamysh Lake may have begun to dry out at sometime around the 4th century while urban centers of nearby cities declined. Further excavation and study is needed to better understand why Dev-Kesken declined into ruin.