AShrineIndependent states
Beket Ata Underground Mosque
A mosque carved into the rock of the Mangystau desert. It holds the grave of Beket Ata, an 18th–19th-century Sufi and teacher.
Beket Myrzagululy (1750–1813) received a religious education in Khiva. Back in his home region he taught children to read and write and settled disputes fairly, and he was known both as a sage and as a batyr.
He carved several underground mosques in Mangystau. The most famous, inside a rock near Oglandy, is where he spent his last years and where he is buried.
Reaching it takes a desert road and then a long stairway down a steep cliff. Tens of thousands of pilgrims make the journey each year, and it is regarded as the holiest shrine of western Kazakhstan.
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Updated: October 2, 2026