The Gozli-ata mausoleum is located 160 kilometres from the seaside city of Turkmenbashi in the Balkan velayat in Western Turkmenistan. It is a picturesque canyon, surrounded by pink, greenish and reddish mountains of amazing shape and beauty, and the most remote pilgrimage site in our country. A prominent Sufi and legendary sage Gozli-ata united the Turkmen tribes to fight against the enemy in those lands. Turkmen warriors courageously fought with enemies in the 1520s, defending their independence. A visit to the holy place – the mausoleum and the cemetery of Gozli-ata is the act of pilgrimage. There, religious rites are performed, and legends, parables and interesting stories about the brave warrior can be heard.
Hasan-ata is a historical person who lived in the territory of present-day Mangyshlak. He is a descendant of the third “righteous” caliph Osman (who is the son-in-law of the Prophet Muhammad). Under Osman ibn Affani, the written text of the Koran was collected into a single book. The recognised head of the Turkic branch of Sufism, thinker and poet Hoja Ahmed Yasawi is called the teacher and spiritual mentor of Hasan-ata. His work Divani-hikmet (The Book of Wisdom, often called Hikmety) has been preserved. Hasan-ata received the honorary nickname Gozli-ata for having learned where the staff, thrown by the spiritual mentor Hoja Ahmed Yasawi, had flown.
