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Towering over absolutely flat, waterless and clay plain of Balkan velayat which earlier was known as Misrian Valley are the mysterious and mystical ruins of ancient Dakhistan - the most remote and isolated city. Once h it was a prospering medieval city on the caravan route between Khoresm and P ersian Hyrcania. Dakhistan lay in the center of Misrian oasis and was also called Misrian (Messorian). (The name Dakhistan originated from dakhs - the tribe which used to inhabit the place).
Dakhistan emerged in the late 8th and early 9th centuries, the period of its boom fell on the period of Kh orezmsha k dynasty rule. The full area of city was about 200 hectare s and was protect ed by means of a double ring of walls. The h istorians of that time report ed : «… Dakhistan is a city with a large mosque, being the boundary stronghold standing on the way of Turks-oguzs … ".
Dakhitan did not last long, though. When the armies of Genghis Khan came there they saw already dying city. After Mongolian invasion the life in city went on in the 13th - the 14th centuries, and in the 15th century the life in Dakhistan-Misrian disappeared for good . Numerous ruins of various buildings testify about its former majesty.
The monuments survived include : the well-known Shir-Kabir mausoleum, two 25 m minarets, the portal of the cathedral mosque, the remnants mud-brick clay city walls, the ruins of caravan serais and the mausoleums on Mashad necropolis.
A few caravan serais located around this ancient settlement behind the fortification mark the sites of several city gate s and the directions of caravan routes leading from the city: the s o u th gate led to Persia and Turkey; the east ern - to Bukhara, Samarkand, Merv; the northern - to Russia and Europe.
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