On the road between Bishkek and Issyk Kul (Issyk Lake), the minaret of Burana is all that remains of the city of Balasagun, capital of a state that once reached as far as Urgench, in Uzbekistan. Truncated since being struck by an earthquake, this minaret built of fired bricks stands amid the funerary steles and petroglyphs that are scattered in the surrounding fields. These are very plain, their only decoration being arrangements of bricks that form geometrical patterns.