The caravanserai (mosque, shops, house of the fair committee, further complex) is located in the center of Oil district of Aktobe region.
The first name of the complex was “Kokzhar fair”. The Kokzhar fair is a historical monument, which provided ample opportunities for the promotion of folk art and culture in Western Kazakhstan, it has saved elements of 13 fairs from all over Kazakhstan, the architecture of which has been preserved and not been destroyed.
Regulations on the Kokzhar fair were approved by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs on September 7, 1866 and were officially opened in the spring of 1867 in Kazbek bi volost of Temir district, Ural region. In 1867, the fair was attended by 137 traders. Goods worth about 250 thousand rubles were brought, of which more than 100 thousand rubles were sold and exchanged. Up to 20,000 different animals were purchased at the fair. Kokzhar fair is held twice a year (May 15 - June 15 and September 15 - October 15). In 1893, the Oyyl Mosque was built near the fair. Russian and Tatar traders from Orenburg, Sarytau and Samara came to the fair from the north, and caravans came from the south to establish contacts with Khiva, Bukhara, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan and Iran.
Livestock and livestock products were exported from Kokzhar to Taysoygan - Makat - Guryev, Astrakhan - North Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Iran. In 1867, 60 Tatars, 33 Russians and 22 Ural Cossacks took part in the fair. According to the Russian Statistics Committee in 1911, the turnover of the Kokzhar fair reached 2 million 140 thousand rubles.
Reference: 1. Regional sacred sites of Kazakhstan. –Astana: Foliant, 2017. –125 p.; 2. The sacred Kazakhstan. Volume 2 –Astana, 2018. – 69 p.
